


Promises

by MrsNea



Series: Promises [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-01-14 23:02:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 34,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18486235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsNea/pseuds/MrsNea
Summary: Y/N always keeps her promises. Always. But this time it gets her hurt.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my second series. It is written for the Star-Spangled- Bingo on tumblr. And my square was crying themselves to sleep.

This wasn’t really your scene you thought as you walked into the party together with Nat and Wanda, but you had promised Steve that you would be there and that he would get your first dance of the party. And you always kept your promises. Always. No matter what.  
If you were honest you also felt beautiful for once and you secretly hoped that the reason that Steve had asked you for your first dance was that he had feelings for you, because you were in love with him. Nat and Wanda had helped you find a midnight blue dress that fits you like a glove and showed off your curves and had a deep neckline. They had insisted that you shouldn’t hide your body, and you had listened to them. You really wanted to impress Steve and you hoped he would like you dressed like this. But you felt a bit overwhelmed by all the people at the party. How could Tony know this many people?  
Nat dragged Wanda and you to the bar and before you could ask the bartender for a drink he handed you a glass of champagne and winked at you. It was not what you were going to ask for, but you thanked him and accepted the glass. You turned your back against the bar, you really didn’t want to flirt with the bartender. Sure he was handsome, but your heart was taken by Steve, and you were not one for stringing guys along. You took a sip and scanned the room after those blue eyes that made you week in the knees. Nat and Wanda also turned their backs against the bar and looked at you knowingly. They know about your feelings for Steve and they were sure that he would finally make a move on you today. That the two of you would get together tonight.

 

Across the room from you, Steve stood talking to a woman he meet at the party. She was beautiful, but the moment that Y/N had walked into the room he felt himself get weak in the knees. That dress on her body and the smile she had on her face. He wanted to go over there directly and ask for that promised dance, but he just couldn’t. He tried to remember Bucky’s advice. “Make her jealous” he had said. Then he should sweep her off her feet. So instead of walking over to her, he continued talking to the women in front of him, but his eyes constantly went back to Y/N standing at the bar. He wondered if she had seen him yet. She was breath-taking in her midnight blue dress and he could see other men watching her. Steve felt an urge to go over there and show the other men at the party that she was his, but he needed to stick to the plan. His eyes went back to the woman in front of him. What was her name? Sophia? Sandra? Her hands were on his body, and he felt uncomfortable but he needed to sell this to Y/N. Steve’s eyes drifted back to Y/N again. Had she seen him jet?

 

After a while, you saw Steve standing across from you, but he was not alone. A tall, elegant woman with mahogany coloured hair was talking to him. She had a sparkling silver dress on and her hands were all over his arms. Touching him. Caressing him and he did not seem to mind it. You immediately turned away and blinked away a few tears. Nat and Wanda started looking around the room, trying to understand what had happened. They saw Steve with a woman all over him. Nat cleansed her hands and Wanda placed a hand on her arm. She understood Nat’s feelings, but right now you were more important. You continued to drink your champagne and when you saw how Nat and Wanda looked at you, so you nodded against Sam and Clint that you saw standing a bit away from them. You walked over to them.  
“Damn, you guys look amazing” Clint breathed out and his eyes swept over you. Sam stood just nodding as his eyes looked at Wanda. You laugh and thanked Clint. Nat and Wanda looked at you. You knew that your laugh and smile were fake. In your mind, you went over why Steve would have asked you for the first dance if he was going to talk to another woman and not notice you. Had he even seen you at the party? Or was he too enchanted by the woman he was with?  
“Y/N” Clint said and you turned to him.   
“Sorry,” you said and looked him in the eyes. “I got lost in my own thoughts”. Nat did a face, but you tried to ignore her. Sam lifted his eyebrows at Nat, but Wanda shook her head.   
“I asked if you wanted to dance,” Clint said. You smiled at him.   
“Thank you,” you said. “But no. I already promised my first dance for the evening to someone. Dance with Nat instead” Nat looked at you as Clint took her hands. You smiled at her and they left. You now stood there with Sam and Wanda. You knew that Sam wanted to dance with Wanda, but that they did not want to leave you. “Go, dance,” you said to them. “I see Tony and Pepper, and I want to talk to them,” you said and left them standing there. Before you went over to Tony and Pepper you drank up what you had in your glass and went over to the bar for a new drink. The bartender handed you a new glass of champagne immediately and winked at you again. You laughed at this and turned around. Steve was still talking with the women from before. It looked like they were in their own bubble and you did not want to go there and disturb. Maybe Steve was really into this woman and he would get mad at you if you walked over. You felt your heart break a bit at that thought, but you turned around walking over to Tony and Pepper.

 

Steve’s eyes had followed you the whole time. He saw you leave Sam and Wanda to go to the bar. The bartender winked at you and gave you a glass new drink. He saw you laugh and he tried to hear it. He loved your laugh, it always made him feel warm inside. He saw you turn around and look at him, but he looked down. He glanced up and saw that you were thinking about walking over to him, but as with a small shake with your head, you turned around and went to Tony and Pepper. Maybe you needed more time to get jealous. What was it Bucky had said. “If you make her jealous, then you will truly know she has feelings for you”. Steve needed to stick to the plan and not go over to you. But somehow it felt wrong. He wanted to be with you. The woman in front of him did not seem to notice anything other than the fact that Steve stood by here. She was talking about herself. She did not once ask about Steve. It seemed like she was one of those women that just cared about the fact that he was Captain America. He wished he was talking to you instead. You always made him laugh and you always wanted to know more about him. About his interests and thoughts. But Steve needed to trust Bucky, after all, Bucky had been quite the ladies’ man in back in the day and Steve knew he needed all the help he could get.

 

As you walked through the crowd to get to Tony and Pepper, you wished that Steve would see you and walk over to you. Demand that dance you had promised him and that you should be in his arms. Looking up in his blue eyes. You had planned on telling him how you felt about him tonight. If he just saw you. Maybe he just wanted to be friends after all.  
You stopped in front of Tony and Pepper and they greeted you. Booth telling you how beautiful you looked. You thanked them and returned the compliment. Tony always looked handsome in a suit and Pepper had on a beautiful fire red dress that complimented her fair skin. It looked like she was glowing. You talked about the party and ever so often your eyes sought out Steve, but he was always talking to that woman. You wanted to ask Tony who she was, but you were scared of what he would tell you. Sam, Wanda, Nat and Clint joined you and you started talking about old memories. Bucky joined you after a while, but Steve never came. When Bucky saw you looking at Steve he smirked, but you didn’t notice. But Nat and Sam did. What did Bucky have up in his sleeve they started to wonder.

 

After a while, you broke up the group and started talking to other people. Nat was always by your side. Not that you minded. She knew about your feelings for party’s like this and that you much rather would like to be in your bed watching Netflix. Man after man comes up to you and asked you to dance with them, but you turned them down one after one as nice as you could. Even the actor Chris Evans came up an asked you. It took all of your will power to turn him down, but you always always kept your promises. Even if Chris Evans was your celebrity crush.  
“You know, you really should dance with one of those men. I mean Chris Evans,” Nat said to you after a while. You drank up the champagne in your glass. You signed. “I can’t Nat” you looked down on the empty glass in your hand. “I promised I would dance my first dance with Steve, and I can’t break a promise”. Nat looked across the room and you saw it. Steve was being dragged out on the dancefloor by that woman he been talking to all night. You could feel your heartbreak in your chest. You turned around and walked straight for the bar.  
“A whiskey, thank you,” you said at the bartender when he holds up a glass of champagne. He handed you one and you drank it at once and put the glass down on the bar. The bartender looked impressed. “Thank you,” you said and turned around and saw Steve in a tight embrace with that woman. You looked around the room for an escape. You saw Nat talking to Wanda, but instead of going to them you walked to the exit. When you left the room you slipped off your high heels and started running to the elevator. You felt the first tears ran down your cheeks as you stepped into the elevator.  
When you arrive at your floor you ran to your room and locked your door. You asked FRIDAY to not let anyone in and that you did not want to be disturbed. Then you slid down on the floor crying.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Steve looked as you walked over to the bartender. He holds up a glass of champagne again, but you asked for something else. Steve saw you drown the glass of whiskey as it was water and he thought that you would finally demand that dance he had made you promise to give him, but instead, you left the room. He understood nothing. He had done as Bucky told him to. Why did you leave? He left his dance partner on the dancefloor and walked over to Bucky, who stood looking after you. Before he could say a word to Bucky about it, Nat, Wanda and Sam walked up to them.

“What the hell did you do” Nat sassed at Steve. Wanda took a step forward with clenched fists and Sam holds her back.   
“I was…” Steve looked at Bucky. “I was trying to make her jealous”. His words are met with a slap to the face, from Nat.   
“You are a fucking idiot,” Wanda says and drags Nat out of the room to find you. Steve stands there holding his hot cheek. People around them were looking at them funny.   
“You know, she’s right” Sam growls to Steve. “I would like to hit you myself”. Steve looks at Bucky questioning.   
“Okay” Bucky says running his hand over his neck looking down at the floor. “So that misfired.” Sam looks over at Bucky. “You took advice from Bucky?” Sam is pointing at Bucky.   
“Yeah, I mean… He knows who women works” Steve shrugs and looks down at his shoes.  
“You are so fucking stupid” Sam mutters under his breath. “He knew how to get a, what is it you called them, dame, what was it, 70 years ago. That shit is not applicable now. And defiantly not if you are in love with a person.” Sam huffs. He turns to Bucky. “Were you in love with either of your dames” he asks. Bucky shakes his head.   
“Morons,” Sam says. “Do you know, she turned down all the men that came up to her asking her for a dance” Steve looks up with big eyes. “She had promised you her first dance for the night. But as the moron, you are you were to busy trying to make her jealous”. With those words, Sam left Steve and Bucky standing looking ashamed.   
“I fucked up,” Steve says dragging Bucky out of the room.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Nat and Wanda stood outside your door, hearing you cry. They tried knocking, but Friday said you did not want to be disturbed. You could hear them, but you needed to be alone. You pulled yourself up from the floor and walked over to your dresser. Still crying you took of your jewellery and then you slipped out of your dress. A dress you knew you would never wear again. You looked in the mirror and saw how your make-up was running down your face. You walked into your bathroom and washed it off. Your hands were shaking and you took a couple of deep breaths, trying to control your emotions and your powers.

How could you be so stupid to actually believe that a man like Steve Rogers would be interested in a girl like you? Tears still running down your face you walked over to your bed and crawled down under the covers. Stupid, stupid Y/N, you thought. Your chest hurt and you knew that you would not get over that hurt for a while. You cry yourself to sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~


	2. Chapter 2

Steve and Bucky stepped out of the elevator and started down the hall towards Y/N door, but were met by Nat and Wanda.  
“You got a lot of nerve coming here” Nat growled at Steve, but he pushed past her. He needed to talk to Y/N. He heard her crying when he was about to knock. He took a step back looking at the door. What had he done? Wanda came and dragged him away from Y/N door and into the kitchen. Her grip was tight on his arm.  
“You leave Y/N alone,” Wanda said to Steve. “Or we will hurt you,” she said nodding at Nat. Steve swallowed and looked at Bucky for help.  
“Oh no,” Nat said stalking over to Steve. “Bucky can’t help you out of this mess.”  
“Nat knows how to make people disappear, remember that” Wanda eyed both Bucky and Steve both had their eyes down on the floor.  
“Nat, Wanda” Steve tries to reason with them.  
“You hurt our best friend” Wanda is not giving Steve a chance to say a word. “Maybe I should let Nat kill you. Make it look like a car accident” Nat looks at the Steve with a smug look on her face. Steve and Bucky look at each other.   
“What is happening here” Tony’s askes cheeky when he, Pepper, Rodney, Clint and Sam walk into the kitchen.  
“Oh...” Nat looks between Steve and Bucky. “Why don’t you ask these two idiots”. Sam who already knows what had happened walked over to Wanda and puts an arm around her shoulders.  
“What did you do” Rhodey demanded as he walks closer to Steve and Bucky.  
“I gave Steve some advice” Bucky tries to explain, pursing his lips. “It turns out it was really bad advice.” Tony looks around the room. “Can someone please explain?” Nat looks like she wants to kill Steve, and still, he didn’t say a word, his lips pressed tight together. So Sam explains everything. Pepper walks over to Steve and Bucky and slaps them both across the face, and then she drags Nat and Wanda away from there. Steve looked around the room, the sting of the slap fresh in mind. Everyone else was looking at him angry, except Bucky who keeps his gaze on the floor, and Steve just couldn’t deal with it. Nobody was angrier at him than he was on himself. He didn’t say a word just hurried out in the corridor and towards his bedroom. He had really fucked everything up. He knew that he needed to make this better. He opened the door to his bedroom and walked in. The only thing he could think of was to talk to Y/N and hope that she could forgive him.

 

“Girls, we need to do something about this” Pepper says when they were in Wanda’s room. Wanda and Nat nods.  
“We can’t leave Y/N alone with Steve for a while” Nat says. “She will kill him if she finds out why he did this.”  
“Even if he deserves it” Wanda sigh. “It would just be wrong.”  
“Another way that all of this could end is that Y/N leaves the team” Pepper muses. Both women look at her with big eyes.  
“What?” Nat breaths out.  
“As you know, Y/N was trained at the Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters” Pepper says and looks at both women in front of her. Wanda and Nat are nodding, they knew that. “What you might not know is that they want her back. To be a part of the X-men.”  
“It does not surprise me. Y/N is a powerful inhuman.” Wanda mumbles.  
“She gets offers almost every week” Pepper continues. “She has talked to Tony about it and I think that if it gets too complicated for her here. Well, then she will take the offer.”  
“That is not going to happen” Nat says with an edge to her voice. “We will get her through this. If I need to I will take care of Steve.”  
“I have plans to take Y/N out to breakfast in the morning” Pepper says. “We were going to talk about Steve and how it had gone with her telling him how she feels.”  
“I bet she has a lot to say about him when she finds out why he did what he did” Wanda says looking down at her hands. The three of them make a game plan how to help Y/N through this without dropping any body’s or losing Y/N to another team.

 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Steve stood outside your door. Ha held a tray with breakfast and flowers and was just about to knock when you opened the door. You were surprised to see him outside your door, but you tried to not even look at him. You closed your door and walked passed him. Keeping your eyes right ahead, head held high. Trying to keep your breathing even. Don’t let him get to you, you told yourself in your head. You are stronger than that.  
“Y/N” he said walking after you, but you did not give him any attention. You walked into the kitchen and up to Pepper. Still trying to keep yourself calm.  
“Ready for breakfast,” you asked with a happy voice and she nodded. Pepper sent Steve an angry stare.  
“Y/N” Steve tried again, but you continued walking to the elevator with Pepper. Still not looking at him or acknowledging him.  
“How are you doing?” Pepper asked you when the elevator door closed.  
“I go between wanting to burn everything around me or curling in a corner crying” you answered honestly. Pepper nodded and took your hand. You knew you could be honest with your friends. They had your back.  
“I was prepared for him to turn me down. That we were just friends” you continue. “But not even acknowledging me when he was the one that asked me to save the first dance. I guess he found someone better.”  
“You are so much better than the woman who was his company through the evening. I really don’t understand his reasoning behind all this.” Pepper said as the elevator opened. Bucky stood on the other side. Pepper sent him a death glare, but you didn’t even look at him.  
“Y/N” Bucky tried, but you walked past him. You were not interested in listening to Steve’s best friend. He would only try and defend his friend and that was not something that you were interested in listening to. You needed to get away from all of this. When you were outside you turned to Pepper.  
“Can you keep me occupied today?” you feel the tears in your eyes. “I just.. I need to forget what happened last night.” Pepper promised you a day of fun and later in the evening a girls night with Wanda and Nat. You smiled. That was exactly what you needed.

 

Steve stood outside the elevator with slumped shoulders. He walked into the kitchen where Tony, Clint and Sam looked at him. They did not say a word, but their eyes said so much. Steve knew he had fucked up, but he needed you to talk to him.   
“Guys, I need help” he said looking at them.  
“You are my friend, Steve” Sam growls. “But you treated her like shit. I will not help you hurt her more. Leave her the fuck alone.” With those words, Sam left the kitchen.  
“You know, she waited for you” Tony says looking at Steve, shaking his head.  
“For fucks sake, she turned down, Chris Evans, when he asked for a dance. You know the movie star she loves. Just because she was waiting for you. That says a lot.” Clint says and he and Tony left Steve standing in the kitchen alone, looking down on the breakfast he had made you. Steve crumbled. What should he do? He was in love with Y/N. But if she would not even look at him. He would not have a chance. Maybe breakfast was not the right move. Bucky stepped out of the elevator.  
“I take it that you had just as much luck as I did” Bucky gestured to the breakfast in front of Steve.  
“I have no idea what I should do to fix this” Steve said and looked at Bucky.  
“Me either” Bucky said. “We know my ways are the wrong way.” Steve had this pain in his chest and he knew he needed to talk to you. Get you to understand.  
“Maybe we are lucky she didn’t burn us” Bucky tries to joke.  
“She is not the kind of woman to do that” Steve mumbles.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

A couple of days later you were walking towards your room after a long day away on a mission with Nat and then debriefing with Furry. All you wanted was to take a shower to get the smoke smell out of your hair and then to fall asleep in your bed. You walked pass Steve and kept going.  
“Y/N” Steve shouted behind you. You took a couple of breaths before you turned around. You knew you couldn’t ignore him any longer. Your girls had helped you through the worst, but when you turned around and were met by a big smile on Steve’s face you almost felt yourself waver. You took a deep breath and kept your face professional, cold and distant.   
“What do you want, Captain?” You wondered not returning the smile. Steve’s smile faltering a bit when you said Captain. You always used his name, never his title.  
“I want to explain” Steve said when he stopped right in front of you. You lifted one brow. “I was trying to make you jealous. I wanted to see how you felt about me. I am so sorry. I should just have come over to you at the party. I am sorry.” Steve looked at you with a small smile. You hated that his smile still made butterflies fly in your stomach. You sighed. The butterflies need to be killed.  
“Captain, do you know how many men asked me to dance at the party?” You are trying to keep the fire out of your eyes. Trying to keep yourself cold. Trying to remember what Nat had told you about keeping your emotions in check.  
“I would guess many” Steve almost whispers. “You looked stunning.”  
“Yes, Captain, I did. I was a fucking knockout.” You sass at him. You count to ten silently in your head. “And I still turned them all down. All 26 of them. Do you know why?” Steve shakes his head, looking at you with his big, blue eyes.  
“I always keep my promises,” you say trying to keep from crying. It still hurt. More than you wanted to admit. “I had promised you the first dance, but you were too busy trying to make me jealous to actually notice me.”  
“I noticed you…” Steve tries. You hell up your right hand and he stopped talking.  
“I don’t play games” you said still looking into his beautiful blue eyes and you see him wince. “I want you to leave me alone. I will be civil on missions. You are still my boss, but unless you want to talk to me about work, I want you to leave me alone.” You turn around, feeling the fire wanting to slip out of your fingers. You press your powers down, not wanting to set something on fire.  
“Y/N” Steve takes a hold of your arm and you turn around.  
“You broke my heart. You made me feel small.” You say and feel the tears pooling in your eyes. Steve drops you like he’d been shot, or maybe he had been burnt. You honestly did not care if you had burnt him. His eyes are searching your face for something. “I was going to tell you how I felt about you at the party, but you were too busy playing games to even notice me. I am an adult. I don’t play games with people. Feelings are not something to be played with. So now I want you to leave me the fuck alone.” You growl the last part before you turn around and walk away leaving him standing there. You walked to your room and crawled into your bed crying. You still smell like smoke from your mission, but you did not have the energy to shower. You lift your right hand in front of you and a flame is dancing in your palm. Tears running down your face and all you wanted to do was burn these feelings away. How did your days always end up with you crying in your bed? You let the flame die before you pull the covers over your body completely. After a while you fell asleep, tears still running down your face.

 

Steve stood in the hallway feeling cold, alone and scared. Had he missed his chance? What the hell had he done? He had not just lost the woman he was madly in love with, he had also lost her friendship. This was a situation he never thought he would be in. But now that he thought about it he had never really taken your feelings or the reactions Y/N could have had on him trying to make her jealous. No, all he had thought about was how much easier it would be for him if Y/N came to him instead of him confessing his feelings for her. He had only been thinking about himself, not about her and her feelings. She deserved to be treated well. She deserved to be wowed. To be courted with all kind of romantic gestures. He had seen the fire in her eyes and knew that she had to repress her powers. He could easily be burnt to a crisp by her, but she had kept it in. She had fought it off and he knew from all his late-night talks with her that strong emotions made it hard sometimes to keep her powers in control. That was one of the reasons that she practises yoga and meditation. To keep herself in balanced and centred. She had once told him that it was on Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters that she had gotten the best help to keep her powers in control. She had had some control before because her father had helped her through it and to find a way to calm her down. Steve hated the fact that he was the reason behind her heart-break. He wanted to take her in his arms and make it better. Had it all got better if he had been on his knees begging her for a chance? He had no idea. Steve walked over to his bedroom. He felt more down than he ever been. It all felt hopeless, but deep down he knew that he could not give up on you. Maybe Sam had been right. He needed to give Y/N time. To start with he would do as she had asked and leave her alone. It was the least he could do, for now.


	3. Chapter 3

It’s been over a month since the party and you this time you had promised Tony to attend the party that he was throwing. In return, he had promised you not to throw you a big party when it was your birthday in a couple of weeks. So here you were walking into a party again. You had on a simple black dress, with quite daring slit in the side that run up to your halfway your tight. Nat had insisted that this dress was perfect for you and you did not have the energy to fight with her. You just wanted to get this party over with so you could crawl into your bed and watch Netflix. You had painted your lips bright red, the same colour that your nails where. You felt fierce and had to admit that Nat had been right about the dress. Black and red was your favourite colour combination. You saw a few men staring at you when you made your entrance to the party, alone this time. Wanda and Nat were already in the room talking to Sam and Bruce. Your eyes scanned the room for Clint. He had asked you for the first dance at the party and you had agreed. You saw Steve coming towards you, but you did not look at him. Or at least you tried not to. How come the man looked like a model with his black suit, with a black tie and white shirt, you thought in your head. You felt how a flutter in your stomach and tried your best to seem indifferent to him. Steve had kept his distance to you since your talk in the hallway. Which you were grateful about, but you knew from Nat and Wanda that he asked them about you almost daily.  
“Y/N” Steve was now standing beside you. “Would you like to dance?” He looks at you with hopeful eyes. He was not giving up on you to becoming friends again. The butterflies in your stomach made their presence known, even more. Fuck, fuck.  
“No” you answer and Clint walks up to the two of you. He smiles at you with one brow lifted and you smile back, giving him a wink. You silently thank Clint in your head for finding you so quickly. You did not want to talk to Steve tonight.  
“Ready for our dance?” Clint holds out a hand to you. You nod and you walk out on the dancefloor, without sparing Steve a look. You could feel his eyes boring into your back, still standing where you left him, but you don’t care.  
“You look beautiful tonight, Y/N” Clint says to you. You smile at him and thank him.  
“Black and red is your colours” he continues. You laugh at the statement.  
“I thought that myself when I walked in” you explain when he raised his brows at your laugh.  
“How are you doing?” Clint mumbled in your ear as he drew you in a bit closer. You know that he asked about Steve. You smiled and said you were fine.  
“You know…” Clint said and looked over at were Steve stood. “Sometimes the best revenge is to smile and move on.” You laughed at this and Clint dropped the subject. You spend the rest of the dance talking and laughing. He always made you feel at ease.  
After you had danced with Clint, you danced with Tony and then with Sam. Then one of the men that had asked you at the last party asked you to dance and you accepted. Steve stood with a drink in his hand looking at you. You could feel his eyes on you, but you did not look at him at all. You were going to have fun tonight, and not let Steve ruin another party for you. Even though you wondered if he would ask you for a dance again before the party was over.

 

Steve looked at Y/N. It hurt him to see Y/N in the arms of the different men at the party, but he knew that she was not trying to make him jealous. He understood that she did not play games. She was just having a good time. Steve could not keep looking at her dance anymore so he went to the bar. Even though he could not get drunk, he something with a burn to drink. He told the bartender what he wanted and when he got a drink in his hands saw Y/N come up to the bar with Sam laughing. She did not even look at him. It was as if he was invisible. She got a glass of champagne from the bartender and Sam and she went away again. Steve looked after her.  
“You really got it bad,” the bartender said and Steve turned around to him.  
“That obvious” Steve asked and looked down on his drink.  
“A blind man would be able to see it” The bartender joked.  
“Well, I messed up” Steve took a sip of his whiskey. “And now she won’t even talk to me.”  
The bartender laughed at him and Steve looked up at him.  
“If there was really no chance for you” he said and filled up Steve’s glass. “She would talk to you. She is hurt. And probably mad.”  
“What should I do?” Steve asked and the bartender shrugged his shoulders.  
“I don’t know her” he said making a gesture against Y/N where she was talking to Clint, Nat and Sam. “But I believe that you do. Take your knowledge about her and make her see how sorry you are.” Steve nodded and thanks the bartender. He needed to make a plan. He needed to make this up to Y/N. To show her that he was in love with her. Steve knew he needed help and the only person that would maybe be willing to help him was Wanda. He sought her out at the party and walked over to her. Hoping that she would give him a chance.  
Steve knew he was still in the doghouse with the rest of the Avengers. Even Peter Parker had told him off for what he did to Y/N. Bucky was also getting a lot of backlash, but not as much as Steve. It had been over a month, but Steve had learnt more and more all the wrong with what he had done. When Steve stopped in front of Wanda, he knew that there was a big risk that she would leave him standing there alone.  
“Wanda, I need your help” Steve knew that it was better to be upfront and honest. Wanda looked him over and she must have taken pity on him.  
“What do you need, Steve?” She asked.  
“I need to get some time alone with Y/N without any distractions or interruptions” Steve confessed.  
“That is a lot to ask for” Wanda looked him over. “You hurt her and I don’t want that to happen again.”  
“I love her, Wanda” Steve said and looked out to the dance floor where Y/N was dancing with some guy talking and dancing. “This is killing me. I know I made a big mistake, but I need to give it one last chance before I let her go.” Wanda stood looking at him before she looked over to Y/N. Wanda saw past her friends laugh and smile, she knew that she was not happy. Her smile and laughter was fake and Wanda could still see the pain in Y/N eyes. She knew that Steve and Y/N needed to talk if they were going to get passed this and if they were going to go on with their lives.  
“Fine” Wanda agrees. “But if you hurt her again. Then Nat and I will kill you. I already have the perfect place to bury you.” She points her finger in Steve’s chest.  
“Deal” he says and starts to explain to Wanda what he wants to do.

 

You saw Steve talking with Wanda before he left the party. You looked after him, but you did not go after him. Why did it seem like your body and mind always knew where he was? You were still hurt, but if you were honest with yourself you would admit that you missed him. Your dance partner seemed to notice that your attention was not on him anymore, and you excused yourself and went to Nat and Clint. You were conflicted on what to do about Steve. Were you overreacting to it all? Should you give him another chance? You really did not know.  
“Nat” you said. “Can we talk?” Nat looked at you and nodded. You walked out on the balcony. You stood looking out over the city.  
“I don’t really know what to do anymore, Nat” you said. Nat put her arm around your shoulder. You did not even have to explain that you were talking about Steve.  
“I see him and I don’t know what to do” you almost whisper and break away from her arms. You turn away looking at the party.  
“Y/N, what are you trying to say?” Nat demands.  
“Did I overreact?” you finally get out.  
“No” Nat says and turns you around to her. “You did not overreact. He tried to play games and you are not the kind of woman you play games with.” Nat is running her hand down your arms.  
“I miss him” you whisper and looked down on your shoes. “I miss talking to him. I miss laughing at him. I miss showing him things he missed when he was frozen.” Nat took you into her arms and hugged you close.  
“Oh, honey,” she mumbles. “You really do love him.” She realised you and you walked over to the railing of the balcony. Looking out over the city.  
“If I didn’t I would have gotten over it already” you answered. “Then I would have forgiven him and moved on. Just being friends.” You hang your head low.  
“I feel like an idiot” you mumble not looking up at Nat.  
“You are not an idiot” Nat almost yelled at you and pulled you into her arms again. You felt tears running down your face. The dam finally broke.  
“I am going to kill Steve” Nat muttered.  
“Please, don’t” you whisper feeling weak. “I need to move past this.” Pepper walks out on the balcony and when she sees you two hugging. She walks over to you with quick steps joining in the hugging. The only one missing was Wanda. The girls had helped you a lot over the last couple of weeks. You were thankful to have three amazing best friends in Wanda, Nat and Pepper. They were your rock.  
“What do you need?” Pepper said after a while. Stepping back looking at you.  
“Chocolate and a comedy” you answered fast. The girls laughed. They helped you so it could not be noticed that you had cried and then you left the party. You dragged Wanda with you and ended up in your bed watching Rebel Wilson in ‘Isn’t it Romantic’, eating chocolate and drooling over Liam Hemsworth.  
After midnight the girls said goodnight and walked to their bedrooms living you alone in your room. The girls had helped you through a tough time again. Even though they had offered to turn it into a sleepover, but you needed some time. Time to think. Maybe it was time to move on and start dating?

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

 

You got the call the next morning. A call you had dreaded to get, but knew that you would get one day. His voice in the other end of the line. Wyatt.  
“I need you” was all he said. And just like that, you started looking for your bag. You knew that if he called saying that. He really did need you and that something terrible had happened.  
“I am on my way” you answered and hung up. You started packing your bag when FRIDAY announced that Steve needed everyone for a briefing. That was just perfect, you thought. You knew that you did not have time to go on a mission. You needed to get to him. But first, you needed to tell the team. It was bad, really bad.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

 

Steve started his mission briefing directly when you walked into the room. Everyone else was already there. There was a HYDRA base that needed to be taken down. All hands on deck, so to speak. But you knew you could not go. You were more needed elsewhere.  
“I can’t go on the mission” you said when he told everyone about the mission. Steve told you to be quiet. Of course, he would think this was about him. You stood up.  
“I can’t go on the mission” you said. “I need a week or two off.” Steve looked at you with a stone face.  
“You are going, Y/N,” Steve said. “You can take your time of when we get back. Everyone is needed on this mission.”  
“I am sorry, but I can’t” you said again. All eyes were on you and Steve.

 

“Don’t make the thing between us affect the job” Steve growled out. Y/N gasped.  
“That is not what this is about” she sassed at him. “I have a friend that needs me, and I promised to come.”  
“You can go after the mission” Steve sighs and dragged a hand through his hair.  
“NO” she said, holding her ground. “I am going now.”  
“If you don’t go on this mission. You are no longer an Avenger.” Steve said and looked eyes with Y/N. Protests were thrown around the room, but Steve and Y/N are ignoring them.  
“I made a promise and I intend on keeping it. I promised him I would be there for him so that is what I am going to be. If you feel like I don’t belong here anymore because of that. Then you can kick me out of the Avengers.” They all stopped talking. The thought of Y/N not being a part of the team anymore was petrifying. What the hell had he just done? Steve sat down in his seat, feeling defeated. Had he just kicked out the love of his life from his life? How much could he mess things up? He really was bad at this. She must hate him now. Steve feels the tears stinging in his eyes. 

 

You looked around the room on your fellow Avengers, after a few minutes of silence, and understood that you might be going about this the wrong way. You wanted them to understand.  
“Have I ever told you why I always keep my promises?” you asked. They all shook their heads. Steve sat up a bit straighter in his chair. You knew it was time to tell them, at least one of your secrets.  
“When I was a teenager I promised my grandmother that I would come and visit her, but then a friend asked me to go shopping instead, so I did not go to my grandmother” you say and try to not cry. “While I was shopping, having fun with my friend, my grandmother had a heart attack and died. I found her the next day.” Tears are falling down your eyes, but you need to continue talking. “If I would have visited her, as I promised, she might not have died.” You feel a hand on your arm and looked down to see Nat’s hand on your arm. She gave you a small squish. It gave you the courage to continue talking.  
“The next time I failed to keep my promise was when I promised my training partner, Samantha, to go running with her one morning. I woke up with a burning fever and did not want to risk exposing my powers, so I sent her a text, saying I was sick and that I could not make it.” You try to keep yourself from breaking down in front of them. Nat seems to know where this story was heading. She stood up and put her arms around you. “Samantha got hit by a car, it was a hit and run, She spent the next 3 months in the hospital. If I was there she might not have gotten hit.” You feel like you can’t breathe anymore. “After that, I just can’t break a promise anymore. I am going to my friend. I am not breaking a promise again.” You turn around hurry out of the room. Maybe you just got yourself kicked out of the Avengers, but a promise is a promise.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~


	4. Chapter 4

Nat gives Steve a piercing look before she leaves the room to go after Y/N. Wanda stands up and follows. Steve started to understand more where Y/N came from now. And that he had fucked up so much more then he thought. And now Y/N thought that she no longer was a part of the Avengers. The room is silent for a bit more. Everyone trying to come to grasps with what Y/N just had said. Then the room explodes with voices yelling at Steve.   
“What the hell, Steve” Tony yelled. “You don’t make the decisions who is or isn’t a part of the Avengers.” The other in the room agreed. Even Bucky.   
“You are the biggest idiot on the planet,” Clint growled, glaring at Steve. Not pulling any punches. “She has a friend that needs her. We can handle this mission without her. Have you realised she never takes time out? She is always here for us.” Sam said. Steve sank back in his chair. Why did he always continue to fuck this up? He would understand if Y/N never talked with him again. It was as his brain got fried when things were about her. Instead of making things better between them, he just kept pushing her away from him. He saw the stares he got from the other members of the team and he was not in a mode to get yelled at any more. So he left the room. He did not notice that Bucky followed him. Steve needed air. That was all he could think of. He walked to the balcony and sat down on a bench.   
“You really are a Punk,” Bucky says and sits down beside Steve.   
“Well, you are a Jerk,” Steve says and gives Bucky a sad smile. Bucky sighs.  
“Sometimes I think you want to self-sabotage yourself.” Steve looks up at Bucky with big eyes.   
“What do you mean?” He wonders.  
“You deserve to be happy, Steve,” Bucky says and lays a hand on his friend's shoulder. Steve feels his eyes sting, so he looks away.   
“And Y/N makes you happy.” Bucky continues. “I have never seen you as happy as when you are with her. Not even Peggy.” Steve nods scratching the back of his neck. What he felt for Peggy was not even close to what he feels for Y/N. Bucky gets up and leaves Steve alone to his thoughts. He had a lot to think about. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

You walked into your room and started packing with tears ringing down your face. Nat came into the room and pulled you into an embrace. You sobbed in her shoulder. After a while, you felt two more arms hold you. It was Wanda. They said nothing just hold on to you as you cried. After a while you pulled away, drying your tears.  
“Do you need help packing” Nat wondered and you nodded.   
“I need to pack everything up,” you said. Both women looked at you with big eyes. “Can you send it to me, when I found a new place?”  
“What do you mean find a new place?” Wanda asked looking at you with big eyes.  
“Well, obviously I am not an Avenger anymore,” you said and started folding jeans and putting them in your bag.  
“Like hell, you are” Nat barked. “Don’t listen to what Steve said. He is not in charge over who is a part of the team or not.” Wanda agreed and you felt how you relaxed. You really thought that you had lost your family.  
“So, where are you going?” Nat inquired.   
“Cape May” you answered and Wanda handed you a couple of t-shirts that you folded and packed in your bag.  
“And which of your friends lives there?” Wanda wondered. You sat down on your bed. They deserved to know.  
“Wyatt, my childhood best friend, lives there,” you say and put your head in your hands. Nat and Wanda look at you curiously. You don’t talk a lot about your childhood. They knew that your father was alive and lived in New York City. But other than that they did not know much. You looked at them and understood that they wanted to know more, but they did not want to pry.   
“We grew up next door to each other,” You tell them. “He was my rock and one of the people who was not freaked out when my ability started manifesting. He helped me through it all. And I promised I would be there for him if he needed me and now he needs me.” You laugh a bit. “I mean, my mother divorced my father because he did not want to send me away when they found out I could control fire.” Wanda laid a hand on your shoulder. This was more then you had ever shared.  
“But Wyatt was there for me, actually, his whole family was,” you continue. “And I know that if I get an ‘I need you’ call it’s something serious.”   
“Wait. Was it Wyatt that made stooped you from getting the butterfly tattoo on your shoulder when you were drunk,” Wanda asks after a moment of silence. You laugh a nod. “I remember that story,” Nat says. “I am so lucky that he stopped me,” you say and look over your shoulder. “I mean.. I like butterflies, but that would have been a drunken mistake that I really would have regretted”. The girls laugh and you rub your hands on your arms.  
“It will be all right, Y/N,” Wanda says and lays a hand on your arm.  
“I just got a bad feeling in my stomach about this,” you say. “He has never called me like this. I could hear the fear in his voice.” The girls give you a hug again and then they helped you pack the last things. When you opened your door, Tony stood right outside with a set of car keys.   
“Take the Audi,” he said and hugged you. He knew that it was your favourite car to borrow.   
“Thank you, Tony,” you said and hugged him tight.   
“We will see you soon,” he said and realised the hug. You looked up and everyone, except Steve, stood beside Tony. You hugged them all and promised to keep in touch. You took your bag and left. Feeling sad that Steve had not been there. A hug from him had really helped. Even though you were angry at him and wanted to yell at him. But a hug had meant that he did not mean it that you were no longer a part of the Avengers.

 

“Y/N, wait!” Steve came running up to you as you were walking to the car.  
“Are you here to kick me of the Avengers?” you whisper. Steve shakes his head. He takes your hand and looks into your eyes. Your skin is burning from the contact.   
“No. Promise me that you are coming back,” he says. You look at him. Was that something that you could promise? He looked at you with hope in his eyes and you did not know what to do.  
“Please, promise me,” Steve pleaded with you. You wanted to give him something.  
“I promise I am coming back to the Avengers, to my family,” you say and he flinches. You could not promise to come back to him. Not after everything. Not yet. Maybe it was good for you to get away from each other a while. It would give you time to think. You walked over to the Audi that Tony had borrowed you and putting your bag in the car. You turned around to see Steve still standing there.   
“Bye,” You said and jumped in the car and drove away. You saw Steve standing where you left him. And you almost turned around. 

 

Steve stood looking after you. Bucky came up from behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.  
“She will be back,” he said and Steve nodded.   
“She promised she would be back for the team,” Steve whispered.   
“At least that’s something,” Bucky said, his brows connecting.   
“More then I deserve,” Steve said and looked down on the ground. He really screwed up everything with you.   
“I fucked everything up,” Steve said. “I love her, Bucky.”  
“I know,” Bucky said and hugged Steve. “You got to make this right. You two needs to talk all of this through.” Steve nodded and they walked away together. Steve decided to go to his room to get ready for the mission. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A couple of hours later you drove up on Wyatt’s driveway. The door to the house opens and you are out of the car as fast as you can. You run into each other’s arms.  
“You are really here,” he murmurs in your eyes.  
“Of course,” you whisper back. “Where else would I be.”  
“You are an Avenger now,” He says as he realises you. “I did not know if you could come.”  
“For you, I will always come,” you smile and head back to the car to get your bag. He takes it from your hand and you walk into the house.  
“Are we going to talk about what made you call?” you ask. He stops and turns around to look at you.   
“Dad had a heart attack,” he said and you could see the tears in his eyes. You took him into your arms. He started crying. “It does not look good”.  
“Let’s go inside,” you said and ushered him inside. You lead him to his couch and you sat down and you held him in your arms until he fell asleep in your arms. This gave you time to really look at your friend. He had big bags under his eyes. He had not shaved in a couple of days giving him a scruffy look, and you could only guess that he had not showered in a couple of days either, according to the smell. You slowly laid him down on the couch and put a blanket over him. Your bad was just inside the door and you quickly sent a text to Wanda, knowing that she would tell the others that you made it to your destination. With a lock at Wyatt’s still sleeping form, you went into his kitchen. Being best friends meant that you knew that Wyatt had not been eating anything. So you decided to do some comfort food, lasagne. Ten minutes before the food was finished, Wyatt walked into the kitchen and pulled you into his arms again. He took a deep breath.  
“Thank you for coming,” he said with a hoarse voice. “I really needed my best friend.” You hugged him closer.  
“Are you hungry?” you asked and stepped back from his arms. He nodded.   
“The food is almost ready” you said and his phone started ringing. He looked at it like it was a bomb. You laid a hand on his shoulder and answered his phone. It was his mother crying saying that Wyatt’s dad had woken up. You smiled at Wyatt and tear started running down your cheeks. You promised you would get to the hospital soon.   
You ate some lasagne and you got Wyatt to go take a shower, while you put the food away. Then you left to go to the hospital. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Wanda knocked on Steve’s bedroom. Steve was dressed in his Captain America uniform, ready for the mission. He opened the door and let her in.  
“Y/N is at her friend’s home now,” Wanda said. Steve nodded and sat down on his bed.   
“You know that you messed up again,” Wanda crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him. Steve sat down on his bed and rested his head in his arms.   
“I know. Trust me I know,” Steve whispered, looking ashamed.  
“She was talking about packing up everything,” Wanda continued. This had Steve jumping up.  
“What?!” He burst out.   
“She thought she been kicked out of her family,” Wanda sneers. “Her boss told her that if she puts her friend ahead of one mission, she is off the team. What did you think she was going to do.”  
“I honestly, don’t know,” Steve says and run a hand through his hair. He sat down on the bed again. He was not used to feeling defeated.   
“You crossed a line at the party and you just made it worse. And you have no idea what you are doing,” Wanda says with a huff. “You are alienating the rest of the team. And you are losing her.”  
“I have so many things to make up for, if she gives me a chance,” Steve admits and Wanda nods. “I think I need to change the plans I made with you. I need more than just some time without interruptions.” He continued and looked up at Wanda.   
“Why should I help you after what you said to her today,” Wanda said tilting her head to the side.  
“Because I love her more than anything on this earth. Being without her, hurting her, makes me want to stop breathing. I am so in love with her that I mess everything up. I am so scared of losing her, that I end up pushing her further and further away,” Steve says and a tear runs down his cheek.  
“I need to show her that I love her,” Steve stood up and walked over to the window. “That she is my world, and then leaves the decision in her hands.”  
“That is the only chance you got,” Wanda said. “Are your head in the game for the mission?” she continues looking worried at Steve.  
“Yes,” Steve says without looking at her. Wanda nods and then she leaves the room. Steve stayed looking out the window. He had no idea how to win Y/N back, but he would not give up. Steve shakes his head. Right now he needed to get ready for the mission. He knew that the rest of the Avengers were not happy with him right now, but this mission needed to be done.


	5. Chapter 5

Steve was miserable without Y/N. The mission she had missed had gone well, but Steve had found that he wasn’t in the best head game and the rest of the team was still mad at him. And they were even madder at him for taking some, according to them, unnecessary risks with his life on the line. This made him try and avoid the rest of the team as much as possible. He wished Y/N would come back soon, but it had only been 5 days, and she had asked for 1-2 weeks free time. But he would not be surprised if she was away longer time.   
Steve knew from what Wanda had shared with him that Y/N was at her childhood best friend Wyatt. A friend that Steve hoped to get to meet one day. Steve knew a bit more about Y/N childhood and life before the Avengers then the rest of the team, but he had a feeling that the reason behind that was that he had found her crying in the gym in the middle of the night, this was the night before mother’s day. Y/N had told him about how her mother had tried getting her institutionalized when her ability’s started manifesting themselves. But Y/N’s father had stood by her side and refused that. In the end, her father had won and her mother left them. Steve knew that Wyatt and his family had been an escape for her and that they had supported her and accepted her ability’s. Y/N had eventually ended up at Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngster, where she had got the help to control her abilities. Then Fury, who was a kind of friend of her father, had offered her a place at Coulson’s team. Then she had been introduced into the Avenger team, two years earlier, after the Accord and while everyone was still dead after the snap. She had been a big part of defeating Thanos and getting everyone back to life. Everyone in the team loved her. She fitted in with everyone on the team and she always made sure that everyone was doing okay. Y/N had made sure that everyone came out from their rooms after the big takedown. That they talked about their feelings and all the fighting that had happened between the team. She had made the Avengers into the Avengers again. Made the team whole and happy again. She had also encouraged Peter to go to university, to take some time off from saving the world. She had said that he should get a degree and be a normal university student, or at least as normal as he could be. One of the things Y/N had done was to make sure that the team had at least one big family dinner a week. She got everyone involved and they had a great time. They were a family again. Bucky and Tony even started getting closer and friendlier after Y/N had talked to Tony. Steve had no idea what had been said, but whatever she had said to Tony had really made a difference.   
Now that she wasn’t at the compound it felt colder and less bright. Y/N always brought the laughter into every room she was in. Steve knew that she had a lot of secrets about her life. One time he had asked her about her past and she had answered that she didn’t live in her past, she lived in the now. She had never told him about why she always kept her promises, but now he knew. He wishes he would have known earlier. Then he would not have fucked everything up as much as he did.   
Steve stood looking out the window in his bedroom thinking about Y/N and what he would say when she got back. He needed to be brutally honest with her about his feelings. Just put it all one the line for her and hope she gave him a chance. He just hoped she thought he deserved a chance.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Are we going to talk about it,” Wyatt said on your sixth day with him.  
“About what?” You asked looking away, eyes focusing on the bookshelf to your left.  
“Don´t even try with me,” he said and you pull a hand through your hair. “I have known you since you were 6 years old. Do you think I can’t see when something is wrong with you?” This was a conversation you knew that you could not push off any longer.   
“Okay,” you said and pulled him to the living room and the couch. Then you told him everything that had happened with Steve.  
“I know that you have had your feelings played with before,” Wyatt says putting an arm around you hugging you to his chest. “But I think you need to acknowledge the fact that Steve has little knowledge about women. He made a mistake.” You nod at this. It was something you had been thinking about the last couple of days. You site quiet for a while. Your head is spinning with your feelings and thoughts on Steve and the whole situation.  
“What are you planning on doing?” Wyatt asked after a couple of minute’s silence.   
“I honestly don’t know,” you exhale. “I mean, I still have feelings for him. Even if I want them to be gone, I know in my heart that he is a man that woke up in the wrong era and that he has no idea what he should do. I heard that he listen to Bucky and that is when it all got fucked up. I just don’t know what I want or what I want to do.”  
“Well, you can’t hide here for the rest of your life,” Wyatt teased you. You push him in his chest.  
“Are you getting tired of me already?” you sass.   
“No, absolutely not,” Wyatt admits. “But you have a life. I mean, you are a fucking hero saving the world. As I always knew you would. You need to go back home and figure all of this out.”  
You nodded. Wyatt had always been there for you. Not thinking you were a freak. He had always supported you in all you had ever done.   
“I am staying a couple of days more. I want to see your father get out of the hospital. I promised him that I would cook him food one time before going back,” You say after a while. Wyatt nodded and left it at that. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was five of days later that you parked the Audi on its spot and took out your bag. You were tired, but you needed to let the team know you were back. The team was your family and even though you had been with your other family, you still missed them when you had been gone. You had talked to Nat, Wanda and Tony while you had been away, but that was all. Even though Steve had messed everything up and you were mad at him, you still had missed him.  
“FRIDAY, where are the team?” you ask.  
“Bruce is in the lab, Wanda is in the kitchen and Steve is in his bedroom. The rest of the team is out on missions,” Friday answers.   
“FRIDAY can you let Bruce know I am back?” You say and thank FRIDAY when she tells you she has notified Bruce. You leave your bag in your room and make your way to the kitchen to talk to Wanda.   
Wanda is cooking some food and it smells delicious.   
“Hey, Wanda,” you great her.   
“Y/N! Welcome home,” Wanda calls out and drags you into a warm, tight embrace. You hug her back and feel how your body starts to relax. It was nice being home again.  
“The rest of the team should be back soon,” Wanda says as she releases you from the hug. “I am cooking dinner for everyone. Are you hungry?” You smile at her.  
“Yes, I am hungry,” you answer. “Do you need any help?”  
“No, I am fine. Why don’t you take a shower and relax. I have FRIDAY tell you when the food is ready,” You thank her and give her another hug before you walk out of the kitchen. You stand in the hallway for a while, wondering if you should go and tell Steve that you are back, but you decide against it. You needed to get your bearings some more before you saw him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

About an hour later you leave your room, feeling refreshed by your shower. You are dressed a pair of jeans and one of Wyatt’s T-shirts that you stole from him. It made you feel ready to meet Steve. You walk in the kitchen and everyone is talking with each other and nobody notices you. So you clear your throat and all eyes’ shout to you. It got really loud and they all take time welcoming you home. Nat holding you a bit longer than the rest, when you noticed that Steve wasn’t in the room.   
Everyone is wondering how you are and how your friend is doing. You tell them everything about how Wyatt’s father had been flirting with all the nurses in the hospital and all other fun things you wanted to share with them. And the team went around telling you everything you had missed while you been gone. You notice that they don’t talk about Steve, but you don’t say a word about that. After a while, you can no longer hold it in.  
“Have you killed Steve or does he still don’t want me on the team?” you ask looking around the room. It is dead quiet around the room and nobody meets your eye.   
“Bucky,” you say after a while. He meets your eye and his eyes seem darker.  
“He is alive,” Bucky says, but nobody adds anything.  
“So I guess that means I am of the team,” you say. That gets a response. Everyone says no.  
“Can someone please tell me what is going on,” You say when nobody tells you anything.  
Bucky tells you about Steve skipping missions and taking time off. Bucky had been on them all and Nat had taken the role as captain on some of the missions, instead of Steve.   
Of what you could understand his head had not been in the game and that was dangerous.   
Bucky also tells you that Steve knows that he had overreacted to your demand to take some time free and that he knew he was royally fucked. You nod and look around the room. Nat smirk at you and Wanda is looking like a cat that swallowed the bird. You knew you needed to talk to them alone later.  
“Has anyone told Steve that Y/N is back?” Bucky asks after a while.  
“No, I told FRIDAY to tell him that dinner was finished,” Wanda answer. “But he said that he was not hungry”.   
“I did not tell him I was back,” you say when Bucky looks at you.  
You don’t talk more about Steve after that. After a bit longer, when everyone had finished their dinners, you excuse yourself. You were tired and needed to sleep. You send a quick text to Wyatt to tell him that you would talk to him tomorrow then you crawl into bed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

But you can’t sleep. Steve’s behaviour is keeping you tossing and turning. You knew you needed to talk to him, but you wished everything could just go back to normal. Back to the way they were before. After a few more minutes you give up on sleep. Instead, you put on a pair of fluffy socks and walk to the kitchen to make some hot chocolate. That would hopefully settle you so you could sleep.   
“Jackpot!” you say out loud and did a little happy dance when you found marshmallows in one of the cupboards in the kitchen. 

“Y/N,” said a low voice behind you that made you stop what you were doing.   
“Hey, Steve,” you said then turn around to look at him.  
“When did you get back?” he looks down at his hands.  
“A few hours before dinner,” you answer. He nods.   
“Do you want some hot chocolate?” you wonder. “I made more than enough” You knew you were known by every member of the Avengers for your hot chocolate. You made it from scratch after an old recipe from your grandmother. Everyone loved it when you made it and you know that Steve was not an exception to this. By the way his face lit up when you asked him, you understood that he had not expected you to offer it.  
“Yes, please,” he answered taking a seat at the counter. You study turn to the stow again to stir in the hot chocolate. You had noticed how Steve looked. He had obviously not shaven for the time you had been away, his beard was kind of scruffy. There were dark circles under his eyes and he looked really tired. To be honest, he looked like shit. And it made it hurt in your breast. You knew that it was not your fault, but this just showed you that you still loved him. 

Steve sat there looking at her. He could not really get it into his head that she was back. Even though he saw her standing there stirring in the hot chocolate. Every ounce of self-control he had was needed for him not to walk over there and hug her tight. He wanted to fill the silence, but he had no idea what to say to her. He had honestly not expected to see her here in the kitchen in the middle of the night and not when he looked like this. Steve had made a plan of how he would act and what he would say the next time he saw her. But now he could not get a word out of his mouth.  
Y/N places a mug in front of him.  
“Thank you,” Steve says and sips it. The hot liquid warms his body and he sees her looking at him.  
“Y/n,” Steve begins but gets interrupted of Bucky walking into the kitchen.  
“Hot chocolate!” he cheers and walks over to Y/N giving her a hug. “You are the best, Y/N!”  
Steve looks angry at Bucky. He really wanted to talk to Y/N alone.  
“Help yourself, Buck,” she said and made a gesture in the direction of her bedroom. “I am going back to bed. See you tomorrow” She leaves the room giving them both a small smile.  
“Good night,” Steve says after her. When she has left the room he turns around looking at Bucky.  
“What has crawled up your ass?” Bucky asks drinking his hot chocolate.  
“She is finally back and I got her alone in the Kitchen, actually looking at me,” Steve growls. “And you walk in interrupting,” Steve sighs in the end.   
“You would have made a mess of it,” Bucky shrugs. “You need to give her more time.” With those words, Bucky leaves Steve alone in the kitchen with his thoughts.


	6. Chapter 6

Next morning you walk out in the hallway. You had slept for a few hours after the hot chocolate, but you were still tired. You were dressed in a pair of black tights and a hot pink top, as ready as you could be to train with Natasha. It was going to suck because you hadn’t train anything but a few running passes with Wyatt in the park. And you knew that Nat was going to hand your ass to you on the training mat.  
Steve sees you in the hallway.  
“Y/N,” he says and you turn to look at him.   
“Steve,” you say and flash him a small smile before you turn and walk away to the gym. You did not want to talk to him now. You were not ready yet, not some more time to yourself. No, what you needed right now was to get your ass kicked by Nat. Or needed and needed. You needed to talk to your friends and get some well-needed advice. There were still butterflies in your stomach when you saw Steve or talked to him. You still had feelings for him. Strong feelings. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

When you walked into the gym you saw Nat and Wanda talking in the middle of the room. You know that they were waiting for you so you walk over to them.  
“Bucky said he found you and Steve in the kitchen last night,” Nat says smiling.  
“Good Morning to you too,” You say and start stretching. Wanda smirks and looks at Nat.  
“So it’s true,” Nat says looking down at you.  
“I couldn’t sleep, so I made some hot chocolate and Steve came into the kitchen,” you say shrugging your shoulders. “I shared my hot chocolate with him and then Bucky came in and I gave him some as well.”  
“If this was a few days ago, you would not have given Steve some of your hot chocolate,” Wanda look knowingly at you.   
“I know,” you say fiddling with your hands. “I just.. I had a talk to Wyatt and I don’t know.. I think..” Both women were hanging on your every word. They don’t say anything.  
“I think I want to give him another chance,” you finally get out. “Or at least try to get our friendship back.” They nod looking at each other smiling.  
“I think that sounds like a great idea” Wanda beams at you.  
“But if he hurts you again I will break him,” Nat says stone cold.  
“I don’t think that will be an issue,” Wanda mumbles so only Nat hears.  
“Are we going to talk the whole day or should we train,” you ask. They both understood that you wanted to drop the subject. So they let you. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

You walk into the kitchen with Nat and Wanda, after your work-out. Tony is sitting at the counter with a cup of coffee.   
“Ah, Y/N,” Tony smiles at you. “Just the person I wanted to talk to.” You take a water bottle from the refrigerator and sits down next to him.  
“What do you want, Tony,” You say and smile at him.  
“It’s your birthday in 6 days,” he smirks at you. “Have you changed your mind about having a party?” You laugh at his hopeful face.  
“No, Tony,” you say and take a small sip of your water.  
“Then how do you want to celebrate your birthday,” Tony with a slight pout on his face.  
“I would love a big family dinner here at the compound and then a movie night with pj’s,” you answered honestly. Tony had promised you that it would not be any party.   
“Your wish is my command,” Tony smirked and stands up pressing a small kiss to your forehead.  
“Thank you, Tony,” You smile at him.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Steve was happy that things started to get back to normal between Y/N and him. Or as normal as it could be between them after everything that had happened. They still hadn’t talked about everything that had happened between them, but they talked to each other about other things. Y/N smiled at him sometimes and he tried his best to give her as much time and space as he could. He wanted to be by her side and it was hard. He knew he needed to talk to her sooner than later, but he was afraid of messing things up more. Instead, he tried to show her that he cared. Small things like giving her coffee in the morning, just the way she liked it or making sure that there always was a stock of marshmallows and chocolate in the cupboards in the kitchen. Steve was looking forward to spending Y/N birthday, with a family dinner. It was more much better than Tony’s big parties and he hoped he was going to get a chance to talk to her, really talk to her. He needed to make things right between them, without fucking everything up again. He wanted to take her out on a real date, tell her that he was in love with her and wanted them together. In the end, it was all up to her, but he needed to be honest and try and do it the right way this time.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

It was the day before Y/N birthday. Steve, Bucky, Wanda, Nat and Tony sat in the kitchen eating lunch talking when Y/N skipped into the room.  
“Tony, can you make sure there is room for one more person at the dinner?” You giggled. Steve’s head shot up. Where you seeing someone? And how had he missed that? Wanda and Nat smiled knowingly at you. Steve’s chest started hurting and he had problem breathing.   
“It’s your day,” Tony said with a smirk. “You can invite whoever you want.” You smiled at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.   
“Thank you,” you said and walked over to the kitchen and took out some salad. Steve quickly got up, put his dishes away and left the room, not saying a word. You looked questioning after him.  
“Anyone else get the warm and fuzzies from Capsicle? No? Me either?” Tony says looking around the room. Bucky looks at Tony and shakes his head. This gets a couple of laughs, but you really did not understand why Steve was so cold against you. Everyone in the kitchen understood why Steve left the room, well everyone but you. After looking around the room confused, Tony clears his throat.   
“What is wrong with Steve?” You asked. Nat and Wanda looked at you but stayed quite. Bucky shrugged his shoulders but did not look at you.   
“So, Y/N,” Wanda asks smiling. “Who have you invited to your dinner?”   
“My father Frank,” you respond eating your salad. Bucky excuses himself and leaves the kitchen walking away to find Steve. “I want my whole family with me for my birthday and I realized that my father had not met the whole team yet.”   
“I am looking forward to finally get to meet your father,” Wanda smiles.   
“Frank is the best” Nat smirks and you look at her shaking your head. Nat and your father had a kind of flirty bantering going when they meet each other.   
“My father has never met the whole team,” you say. “But I thought it was time now.” Tony nods in approval. You eat your salad, and then Wanda and Nat follow you to your bedroom to have a small spa day together.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Bucky finds Steve in his room, sitting on his bed with his head in his hands. Bucky fake coughs and Steve looks upon his friend.  
“Kill me, Bucky,” Steve groaned. “It hurts so bad.”  
“Stop being so dramatic, Punk,” Bucky laughs. He walks over to the bed and sits down beside his friend.  
“She invited her father,” Bucky continues. Steve shots up.   
“What?” He asks.  
“She invited her father to the birthday dinner,” Bucky responds with a laugh.   
“I thought..” Steve says running a hand through his hair. Jealousy had overtaken him.  
“I know what you thought,” Bucky says. “Maybe you should not let your imagination and jealousy get the best of you before you know the whole story.” Steve nods at that.  
“So did you come up with something to give Y/N as a present?” Bucky asks, changing the subject. Steve looks at him with a big smile.   
“Yes, I did,” he responds and walks over to his dresser and pulled out two presents from a drawer. Bucky smiled at him and Steve explained how he had gotten the ideas for the presents.  
Steve had spent the last couple of months trying to get the perfect present for Y/N’s birthday. He had wanted to get her something on his own, without any help. The first presents that he had thought about had been too impersonal and after his talk with the bartender at Tony’s last party Steve had come up with the best present ideas. Or at least he thought so. He knew that Y/N would like a present from the heart more than something expensive. He had taken his knowledge of the woman and found two presents that he thought she would love. Steve was a bit scared that she would not like them or that she might not want anything from him. But over the last couple of days, thing started to get better between them and he wanted to show her that he loved her. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

You were still with Nat and Wanda in your room an hour later. Getting your nails painted and feeling giddy about your birthday the next day. You were looking forward to spending time with your family. You had been talking and laughing.   
“You know that Steve left the kitchen before because he was jealous?” Wanda asked out of the blue. Apparently, it was something that she had been thinking about since lunch.  
“What? Who was he jealous on?” you ask confused. Wanda laughs at your confusion.  
“Oh, Sweetie,” Nat says. “He thought that you had invited a guy, like a boyfriend.” You look from Wanda to Nat.   
“He is an idiot,” you sigh after a while.   
“Yes, he is,” Wanda agrees.   
“When the fuck would I had time to meet someone new?” You ask starting to get mad. Nat and Wanda share a look. “And why the fuck is he jealous... He has no right.” You start getting worked up. “If I have met someone, then that is none of his business.” Nat and Wanda nod. You were pissed.   
“Excuse me,” you say and stalks away with your hands fisted.  
“Should we go after her?” Wanda wonders looking at a smiling Nat.  
“No, I think Y/N needs to get this out,” Nat says knowingly. “She needs to yell at Steve before they can go past his behaviour.” Wanda nods. 

 

You knock hard at Steve’s door. He opens the door. When he sees it is you he smiles bright and you feel those damn butterflies in your stomach, but you are to mad to let them stop you.  
“What the fuck is your problem, Steve!” You yell at Steve. The smile drops from his face.   
“You are a fucking idiot. You know that, don’t you?” Steve opens his mouth as to say something.  
“No, you keep your mouth shut and listen to me,” you demanded. You take a step forward and point your finger into his chest. “First you play games with me, trying to get me jealous. And end up hurting me. Then you say that if I put my friend before a mission, I don’t any longer have a place on the team. Kicking me out from my family.” Steve wince at this.   
“And now, when I invite someone to MY birthday, you have the audacity to get jealous. You have no fucking right to be jealous.” You stop pointing at his chest and take a step closer. “I have not done anything wrong. And I think that me inviting my father to my birthday is my right. We are not in a relationship so I could invite any man that I see fit to my birthday.” With that, you turned around and stalk away from him.

 

Steve stood looking after Y/N. He knew that he had to talk to her, but he was afraid of the outcome.   
“I was wondering when she was going to snap. It’s been like the peace before the storm here this last couple of days,” Tony sniggered. Steve looked at him with his mouth in a tight line.  
“He deserved that,” Clint shrugged. Steve huffed, he knew that he probably should let Y/N have some time to cool down, but he needed to talk with her. He closed the door to his room and went after her. 

 

“Y/N, please talk to me,” Steve comes running after you. Fuck, fuck, fuck. You had just yelled at him and more or less made fool at yourself letting your emotions get the best of you. You want to run away, but you knew you needed to face him. You stop.  
“Doll… I know I made a mess out of all this,” Steve says when he comes up to you.  
“And you are right, I have no right to be jealous,” Steve continues drawing a hand over his neck. “I think we need to talk”  
“I think so too,” you agree and look into his blue eyes.   
“Captain America,” FRIDAYS voice is heard. “You are needed in the conference room. Fury is here with information about a mission.” You look at each other.  
“We will talk when I get back,” Steve states and you nod.   
“Please be careful,” Y/N whisper to Steve. “Just because I am mad at you don’t make me care any less about your wellbeing.”   
He gives you a quick kiss on the cheek and walks away. You slump against the wall. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

There was a knock on your door. You groaned it was too early, but the knocking continued. You yawned and walked over to the door. Outside was Steve, he looked at you and blushed.  
“Happy Birthday, Y/N,” he said a bit hoarse. It took a moment for you to realise you just opened your door in nothing but one of Steve’s old t-shirts and a pair of panties on. In his hands, he held a bouquet of hot pink roses in a vase. You smile at him as he hands you the flowers.  
“Thank you,” You say and step aside to let him into your room. You put the flowers on your dresser and see your robe so you put it on. Feeling a bit exposed to Steve, and a bit embarrassed that he caught you sleeping in his t-shirt.   
“I wanted to be the first one to wish you a happy birthday,” Steve admits drawing a hand through his hair. “I just got back from the mission.” You nod at this. Steve was standing in your room, you had invited him in. What were you thinking?   
“Y/N, I know that this might not be the best time,” Steve looks down at the floor. “But I would really appreciate if you could hear me out.” You nod taking a seat at your bed.  
“I have liked you for some time now,” Steve admits giving you a small smile. You feel the butterfly dancing around in your stomach. “And I fucked it all up. To my defence, I don’t know a lot about women or how to show someone I like them. I just got scared of rejection and thought it would be easier if you came to me.” He walked over to your bed and kneeled in front of you. “And then when I didn’t think I could mess it up any more, I told you that you were off the team. I just panicked. I was scared of losing you and instead of being there and understanding I made it all worse.” You look into his beautiful blue eyes and felt all the anger starting to melt away. This was the man that had always been there for you, from the moment you become an Avenger he had been by your side. Been your friend.   
“Could you ever forgive me?” Steve asks not wavering his eyes from your face. You give him a small smile.  
“Yes,” you say and pull him in for a hug. “You are forgiven, Steve.” You realised him from the hug and you both stand up. His posture is more relaxed now. “What kind of friend would I be if I did not forgive you?” You missed the flash of hurt in his face and how his body went stiff. Steve opened his mouth to say something when you heard a bunch of voices starting to sing happy birthday outside your room. You laugh and walk over to the door. Outside are Wanda, Sam, Bucky and Tony singing to you. Wanda takes your hand and drags you out in the hallway. They lead you to the kitchen. Steve is walking behind you, but nobody seems to notice that the smile on his face doesn’t reach his eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

You walk into the kitchen with the gang still singing happy birthday to you. Nat, Pepper, Clint and Bruce were standing in the kitchen waiting for you with a big breakfast is served.  
You remember that Nat, Clint, Steve and Bucky had gone at a mission yesterday. You really needed coffee to wake up.  
“When did you get back from the mission,” you ask Nat when she pulls out a chair for you to sit in.  
“An hour ago” Nat smiles at you.  
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” you ask looking around at your friends. All of them were in the kitchen. Clint shrugs taking a big sip of his coffee.  
“We can sleep after the breakfast,” Bucky says placing a plate with pancakes and berries in front of you. Wanda hands you a glass of new pressed juice and a cup of coffee. You thank them and you the rest of the gang sit down. You eat breakfast together laughing and having a nice time. After a while, you see how tired Nat, Clint, Bucky and Steve looked.  
“Guys, as much as I appreciate all of these,” you say and make a gesture at the table around you. “Go and get some sleep.” This is met with a bit of grumbling. You give them your famous bitch face and the four of them leave the kitchen to get some sleep. When you stand up and start cleaning up the breakfast Sam and Wanda send you away to your room to get dressed and do whatever you wanted. So you leave them to it.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Later in the afternoon of your birthday and what had probably been the most relaxed day of your life, or at least since you joined the Avengers. Pepper had treated you to lunch at your favourite restaurant and you had gone to your favourite book store, where you had bought some new books, to treat yourself. It was now time to start getting ready for your dinner. You wanted to look your best and have an amazing time with your family.  
Pepper, Wanda and Nat had helped you shop a new dress earlier in the week. It was a kind of simple red dress, but it made you feel beautiful. It had a bit of lace on it and if fit you perfectly. The dress lay in your bed and a pair of black heels stood on the floor. You had taken a shower and curled your hair. Now you stand in front of the mirror trying to come up with how you wanted to do your make-up. There was a knock on the door.  
“Come in,” You said and the door opened. Wanda stepped into the room.  
“You are not ready yet?” She asked looking you over.  
“I can’t decide on my make-up” you make a gesture at the make-up you had.  
“Hmmm” Wanda walks over and points at your chair in front of your make-up table. She takes out your favourite red lipstick, that was the same shade as your dress. Your nails were already painted in the same red shade. Wanda helps you with your make-up and in no time you are ready to leave your room.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

You walk out of your room with Wanda and Steve is standing outside. He looked good in a pair of black pants and a dark blue shirt. Wanda makes an excuse to leave you to alone.  
“You look beautiful, Y/N” Steve says giving you a big smile. You blush.  
“You don’t look so bad yourself,” You comment. “Escort me to the dinner?” You smile at Steve. He offers you his arm and you accept it. You walk in silence down the hallway. When you had reached the others, Wanda and Bruce walked over to you and you started talking. Waiting for the rest to arrive before dinner.  
“Look who we found in the elevator,” Nat says walking into the room and behind her is Pepper and your father talking.  
“Dad” you laugh and walk over to him. He pulls you into his arms.  
“Happy Birthday, sweetheart!” he says. He releases you and you look around the room, your eyes stopping for a moment on Steve. His eyes meet yours with a lifted brow and you look away, feeling your cheeks starting to get hot.  
“You need to meet the team,” you say and take your father's hand, pulling him to the team.  
“Dad, this is the Avengers,” You say. “This is my father, Frank Y/N.” You say to the team.  
“This is Clint Barton, Wanda Maximoff, Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers. We are missing Rhody, Peter Parker and Thor.” Greetings and pleasantries are exchanged.  
“Happy Birthday, Y/N,” a happy voice says from behind you. You turn around.  
“Peter” you squeal and running into his open arms. Peter catches you and spins you around.  
“Did you really think I would let you celebrate your birthday without me?” Peter laughs and puts you down on the floor again. You take his hand and drag him to the rest of the gathering.  
“Dad, this is Peter Parker,” you say. “Peter, this is my father Frank.” They great each other.  
“It’s nice to finally meet Y/N’s other family,” Your father says after a while. Your eyes move around the room. Family. It warmed your heart to know that your father understood. Your eyes reach Steve and he was already looking at you smiling big. You give him a smile before you look over at Pepper. She makes a gesture and you walk over to her. What you did not notice is that she wants you to join her so that your father can talk to Steve.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

In front of Steve was Y/N father, Frank. Steve swallowed hard. His hands started sweating. Meeting Frank after everything that had happened between him and her scared him. Maybe her father hated him.  
“Can we talk?” Frank asks and nods his head in the direction of the hallway. Steve nods and looks around the room. Bucky meets his eyes and lift and brow. Steve tries giving his friend a calming smile, but it looked more like a scared smile. Steve follows Frank out in the hallway.  
“I see how you are looking at my daughter,” Frank said when they are out of sight from everybody. Steve swallows hard. “And I see the way she is looking at you” Steve rubs a hand over his neck. “A blind man would be able to see that you are in love with my daughter” he continues.  
“I would like to know what you are planning to do about this.” Steve clears his throat and looked right in the man’s eyes.  
“You are right, I love her and if she lets me,” Steve said without looking away. “Then I will marry her one day. She is the best in my life.” Frank nodded approving. “I know I messed everything up, but I am trying to make it right again.” Steve continued completely honest.  
“I like that you know you messed up,” Frank said with a laugh. “And I know that I don’t need to threaten you what I would do to you if you hurt her. I know that Y/N can take care of herself and that what is left of you will be taken care of by Nat and Wanda.” he chuckles at this and Steve just nods. He knew this as well.  
“Don’t forget the rest of the team” Steve chuckles. “They all see Y/N as a family member and if I hurt her I would have to face all of them.” Everyone talks and Pepper says it’s time to eat. You walk over to the table, and its beautifully set with your favourite flowers, dark blue table cloth with galaxies on it. The plates are gold as well as the cutlery.  
“Wow,” you say and Pepper smiles at you looking pleased. You know it was Pepper who had done this for you. Tony leads you to the head of the table as the guest of honour. It felt weird, but you did it. It gave you a good overview of your family. You smile, laugh and eat and have a fantastic time with your family. Eating your good food and drinking champagne. Tony had said that you deserved the best, therefore you got the best. It was amazing and you felt loved.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

After dinner it came time to open the presents. A part that you both loved and hated because you were afraid to let people down if you weren’t excited enough about the presents you got. Tony had set up a big chair, like a throne, with two tables beside one either side. He wanted all eyes to be on you.  
“My lady,” Peter handed you his hand and walked you over to the chair. “Now sit” he demanded. Everyone else stood in front of you. Tony winked at you and walked over to Bruce.  
“Here open the presents from me first” Tony ordered and handed you to bright red packages with gold bows on them. They were kind of heavy. You opened the biggest one first and got a shook. It was a blood red computer. You looked upon Tony and smiled.  
“Thank you,” you said and he made a gesture to the smaller package. So you opened it and it was a new mobile, with the same colour as the computer. You placed it at the table to your right and hopped up giving Tony a big hug.  
“Thank you,” you said again. Tony cleared his throat. “Well, I could not have you come to me every time to old crap you use starts acting up”. Everyone laughs at this. You sat down again and Pepper is next handing you a golden envelope. You opened it and squealed. An entire weekend with the girls at a luxury’s spa.  
“Thank you,” You hoped up and gave her a big hug.  
“You deserve some downtime,” Pepper said. Everyone nodded at this. Your father walked over to you with two packages. He handed you the small one first. You opened it and it was a small ring box in it. When you opened it you let out a gasp. It was your grandmother’s engagement ring.  
“Dad,” you said kind of questioning.  
“Your grandmother always said that you should get this ring one day,” Frank says and you blink away a couple of tears. “She loved you and you know it was not your fault what happened. You were just a child.” You nod and he pulls you up into his arms hugging you tight. You had needed to hear that more then you thought. When he released you he handed you the other package. Inside was a photo album with photos from the time you were a baby up till you joined the Avengers. Tears started to make their presence known again.  
“Oh, baby pictures of Y/N” Tony smirks. “I want to see” He put out his hand to grab the album, but Nat smacks his hand away. “Later,” Tony mumbles. You hug your father again before you sit down again.  
Wanda hands you a present.  
“It’s from Nat and me” she says. You open it and it’s a black shoe box. You pull out a pair of black Jimmy Coo high heels that you had been drooling over for the last couple of weeks. You let out a laugh.  
“Damn, that is a pair of sexy shoes,” Sam says and the room gets quiet. Frank looks over at Sam that blushes under his eyes. You quickly take off the shoes you had on and slipped on the new shoes. Then you stand up and Nat gives you wolf-whistle.  
“That’s not how you should do it,” Bucky says and you lift a brow at him. Everyone starts laughing. You walk over to Nat and Wanda and pull them into a group hug.  
“Thank you,” You say. “I love them.”  
“Well, if I had walked in on you drooling at them one more time online I might have gone crazy” Nat sassed. “Now I can do it in real life instead,” you say and smile. Wanda started laughing. Nat drags you over to the chair again.

 

Next out are Sam and Bucky. They are bickering between each other, but Bucky hands you a package. It was clear that they had tried to pack it together and end up fighting about it. It was kind of messy packaging but you loved it. When you saw what was inside you started laughing, tears started running from your eyes. Everybody looked at you curiously so you hold up the homemade booklet that contained coupons. You eyed through it quickly. There were coupons for training together, breakfast in bed, the boys being your arm candy to parties, snuggle buddy’s during movie nights, buying you marshmallows in the middle of the night, going shopping with you and carrying all your shopping bags and getting to take their turns at deciding movie on movie night. You stand up and give Bucky and Sam them both each a kiss on their right cheek. “Thank you,” you say. You sit down again and Bruce comes over slowly. You give him a smile and he hands you a small package. It is carefully packed in a silver paper and you open it. Inside is a box and when you lift the lid of the box you look up at him with big eyes.  
“How?” you ask before you lift the small flask inside the package. Inside is a liquid that looks like coloured galaxies. It was amazing.  
“I can’t really explain it to you,” Bruce says shifting around a bit. “But I know how much you love space and stars.” You let out a small laugh before you put the flask on one of the tables. You stand up and give Bruce a big hug. “Thank you,” you say and step back. Bruce makes a small wave with his hand. Peter steps forward almost tripping on his own feet. The group stifles a laugh, but Sam gives a full-blown laugh. Wanda pushes him. Peter hands you a present and you can see on his face that it’s something good.  
“You didn’t,” you say looking on the package. He just shrugs and gives you a wink. You tear into the paper and start laughing when you pull out t-shirt. Specially made to you. It says: **Fangirl /ˈfanɡəːl** / noun: a female fan, especially one who is obsessive about comics, film, music, or science fiction. Under the text, there was the Tardis, a silhouette of the fellowship of the ring, the lamppost from Narnia and the Disney castle. You smile at the t-shirt.  
“Look in the box again,” Peter says smirking. So you do. Inside are four more t-shirts. One for every fandom that was on the first t-shirt. The first one is dark blue and it says: “We’re all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?” It was from Dr Who and one of your favourite quotes and under the text was the Tardis. The next one is forest green and with a more cursive style it says: “All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost”. One of your favourite poems and a part of Lord of the Rings trilogy. Under the text was the same silhouette of the Fellowship of the Ring as it was on the first t-shirt. The three t-shirts is a maroon t-shirt with the text: “She remembered, as every sensible person does, that you should never, never shut yourself up in a wardrobe.” This was a quote from the Narnia books and under the text was a picture of Atlas, the lion from Narnia. And the last t-shirt was white with multi-coloured text with metallic effect that said: "All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them." One of your favourite Walt Disney quotes. Under the quote was a silhouette of Walt Disney walking hand in hand with Mikey Mouse. You stand up placing the t-shirts on one of the tables. You give Peter a big hug. “I have missed you. Thank you” you say. Peter laughs. “I have missed you too. I did not want you to forget our movie traditions” Peter says smiling at you. “I am soon back for spring break. We have a lot of movies to look at and books to talk about.” You laugh and nod. “It’s a date.” Steve goes stiff at this sentence, but nobody else but you seem to notice it. Nat points at the chair.  
“You have more presents left to open,” she commands.  
“Yes, sat down princess,” Tony laughs and Pepper shoves him. You sit down with a sigh and Clint walks over to you with a strange looking present. He hands it to you and you open it. Inside is a costume bow and quiver, it looks like Legolas bow and quiver from the Lord of the Rings movies. Everyone starts laughing.  
“My present is to train you in archery,” Clint smiles at you. You jump up and hug him.  
“See Nat, nagging helps,” you laugh looking at Nat.  
“Go sit down,” Nat says shaking her head. “Steve’s last”. Everyone looks at Steve who looks down on two packages in his arms. It was obvious that everyone was curious about what he would give you in present. Well, not Bucky, because he looked at you with a smug smile.  
“This is going to be good,” Tony says rubbing his hands together.


	8. Chapter 8

Steve walks over to you. It is so quiet in the room that if someone dropped a needle it would be heard. Steve handed you one of the presents, to begin with. It was neatly packed in dark blue paper with stars on it and a big silver bow. You opened it carefully and he looked anxious on you. Inside was a box that you lifted the lid on. Inside was a Tardis.  
You looked up at Steve, with big eyes.  
“I know it’s not a real TARDIS, but I know that you needed a new lamp” He blushes and looks down in the floor. You lift it up so everyone can see your Tardis.  
You smile up at him, but before you could say anything to thank him handed you the next present. You placed the box with the lamp on the table and took the next present. It was packed in the same way as the first present. A bit heavier. You opened it and let out a gasp. Inside the package were first editions of J.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Everyone is curious so you show them what Steve had gotten you.  
Your father smiles and looks at you nodding. You knew you just got the approval of Steve. He had not bought you some expansive jewellery or anything meaningless. No, he had shown that he knew you better than any other man you had ever been involved with.  
You open your mouth to say something, but you can’t come up with something to say. Your head was empty. So you stand up and give Steve a kiss on his check and then you pull him in for a hug. You hold him a bit longer than you had with anyone else. You hear a bit of shuffling and when you look around, everyone had left you alone.  
“Thank you, Steve,” you say and pull away from him. You felt your face feel warm under his eyes. You could not recognize the look in his eyes. You stand looking at each other for a minute. Steve opens his mouth to say something, but the room gets dark and you see everyone coming back from the kitchen with a cake with candles on. They start singing ‘Happy Birthday’. You hear Steve sigh before he joins them in singing to you.  
“Come on, blow out the candles, so we can celebrate that you yet survived another year,” Tony smirks at you when they stopped singing. You laugh, it was a good way to put it. So you close your eyes and make a wish. Then you open them and take a deep breath and blow out the candles. Everyone cheers as you get every candle on the first try. You look up and meet Steve’s eyes. You smile at him.  
“So, what did you wish for?” Peter wonders. You turn your eyes to Peter and wink at him.  
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” you sass and the group laughs.  
“I bet she wishes for world peace” Clint chuckles.  
“Nah, she wished for more Jimmy Coo heels,” Nat says looking at you smugly. Wanda looks at you and winks. Tony looks from Wanda to you.  
“Oh, come on,” he groans. “Wanda, we are not all mind readers.” Wanda shrugs and you all walk back to the table to eat some cake. Tony is mumbling under his breath.  
“Tony, stop it,” Pepper says. “Its bad luck saying what you wished for.” Tony looks over at you squinting his eyes. “If I get 10 questions I bet I can figure it out.” You just shake your head. “My wish right now is for you to drop it,” you say and you take a bit of the cake. It tasted so good that you almost moaned out loud, but you kept it in. It seemed like you weren’t the only one who loved the cake, everyone was devouring it. It made you smile.

After the cake, your father heeds home, but not before telling you that he really liked your friends and hoped he could come over soon again. You smile at the thought. All of your family spending time together. That was perfect. You walk to your room to change into your pyjamas. You had sent everyone else to do that as well. So far the evening had been amazing. Your best birthday so far and you still could not get over Steve’s gifts. They were kind of a chock, he had listened to you. He had given you something that you wanted. Every present had been on top and really showed you that the people around you loved and cared about you. And that they knew you for you. Your family.  
You get ready for the movies. Tony had let it slip that he had one last surprise up his sleeve and you were curious of what that could be. He always had things up his sleeve.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Steve stood beside you by the treat table. He looked at you and you smiled at him. He looked relaxed in a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. His hair was a bit ruffy as if he had dragged his hands through it. He looked down at his hands then up at you again.  
“Y/N, I know I don’t deserve a new chance with you. But I promise you that I will treat you better if you just give me a chance,” Steve’s voice was a bit hoarse.  
“Steve, this is just words,” you said with a sigh. You still had feelings for the man and even though you had decided to give him another chance you were weary. Maybe you were better just as friends. He could hurt you again.  
“Please, go on one date with me,” he begged and you could feel yourself waver. Maybe you should. You didn’t know. You looked over at Nat who shrugged her shoulders. Then you looked at Wanda that nodded to you.  
“One date,” you said after a while. Steve pumped one of his arms up in the air. You could not help but laugh at his gesture.  
“You won’t regret it,” he said and gave you a kiss on the cheek and walked over to the couch to wait for the first movie to start playing.  
“What did I just agree to,” you whisper to yourself, but Wanda and Nat heard you.  
“Maybe this is a good thing,” Nat said and walked over to you. “A way to move forward or to get a kind of closure.” You nodded and you looked over to where Steve sat. He was already looking at you and the butterflies exploded in your stomach. He gave you a big smile and you bit your lip and turned around to the candy again. You took a piece of chocolate and almost let out a moan. They had really gone all out with the expansive chocolate for this.  
Tony walked into the room in a pair of silk pyjamas ala Hugh Hefner.  
“In honour of Y/N birthday and her fangirling I have gotten a hold on the movie Tolkien and the new Disney movie Lion King” Tony announces with a loud voice. You let out a scream before started to dance around, doing your happy dance. Everybody is looking at you laughing. Two movies you had talked about since they were announced that you just wanted to see. Now you got to see them on your birthday with your family.  
“Which movie are we starting with?” Tony asks you. You stop dancing and think about it.  
“Tolkien,” you say after a minute thinking.  
“Tolkien, it is,” Tony says. “Everyone get your snacks and drinks in order. The movie starts in 5 minutes.” You walk back to the snack table and starts taking what you wanted to eat and drink. When you are finished you look over to where you were going to sit. The whole team was waiting on you and the only free space was beside Steve. You know this was the teams doing, and usually, you did not mind, but it been weeks since you cuddled up with Steve. Before everything had happened. Steve is looking at you and you give him a smile. Then you walk over sitting down next to him. You try not to sit to close, but not too far away either. Steve takes your candy and drinks at putting it on the table before pulling you closer to him. Tony starts the movie before you can say anything to Steve, so you settle in next to him. Trying to not feel how nice it was being this close to him, feeling the heat from his body. 

The first movie was better than you ever would have thought. Nicholas Hoult played J.R.R. Tolkien perfectly and you already wanted to see the movie again. Tony had declared a bathroom break and time to get more snacks. You stood up stretching some before you left to go to the bathroom. Sitting next to Steve the entire movie had made it a struggle at times to keep your focus on the movie. He had affected you more than any other man had ever done. When you get back, Steve is sitting waiting on you. He smiles when he sees you, then pats the place beside him. You laugh and walk over to him. This time you sit down closer to him from the start and lean into his body. Wanda looks over at you and gives you a wink. She nudges Nat with her feet and makes a gesture to Steve and you. Nat throws one popcorn on Sam and flashes her eyes to you. In the end, the whole team was looking at Steve and you. You looked over to Steve hoping that he had not seen what they were doing. But he had his eyes on you. Steve had always been the best cuddle buddy, the one you wanted to sit beside when the gang watched movies together. You settle in against his body, trying not to blush under Steve’s gaze, as Tony starts the new Lion King Movie. You are well aware that Steve was looking more at you than the movie, but you try not to dwell on it. 

When the movie was finished you look around the room. Steve and you were the only ones still awake. You laugh at how cute Wanda and Sam was, sleeping together. Wanda had her head on Sam’s chest and Sam’s head was on Wanda’s head. Steve looks down at you with a big smile. He tries to suppress a yawn but fails miserably.  
“You can go to bed, Steve,” you say standing up. “I can take care of this.” You gesture to the people sleeping in the room. You take a couple of pictures of your family sleeping, with a big smile on your lips.  
“No, I will help you,” He says walking over to Bucky and Nat, carefully waking them.  
You wake up Wanda and Sam waking them up. Then you wake Tony and Pepper. While Steve wakes Bruce and Peter. Clint wakes up from Tony’s whining about being woken.  
You all say goodnight and you walk to your bedroom. Happy, but tired. Almost falling asleep on your feet. The minute your head reaches your pillow you fall asleep.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Three days after your birthday you are in your room with Wanda, Pepper and Nat trying to get ready for your date with Steve.  
“Why am I giving him a chance? Is it wrong? Should I cancel?” You are freaking out looking at the black dress on your bed.  
“See this as a clean slate. A chance to see what you want. You agreed to a date. Not a marriage or an eternity together,” Pepper says trying to calm you down.  
“It’s Steve,” Wanda says. “You know you are safe with him.”  
“And you know you want to go,” Nat smirks. You sit down on your bed. Deep down you know they were right and you really wanted to go on a date with Steve. You took a couple of deep breaths.  
“All right let’s do this,” you say standing up. The girls start talking about make-up and shoes. You are smiling and having a good time. There is a knock on the door.  
“Someone is eager” Nat smirks. “You still 40 minutes until the date is supposed to start.” Wanda goes to open the door. Tony is outside the door.  
“Sorry Y/N,” he says and you feel your shoulders sag. “We have a mission. All man on deck. Fury’s orders.” You nod and the girls look as defeated as you felt.  
“Wheels up in 30 minutes,” Tony says and walks away.  
“I am so sorry, Y/N,” Pepper says taking your hand.  
“Hey, I know this was part of the job when I signed up to be an Avenger” you joke looking around the room. “It’s hard having a normal life when you need to save the world.” They nod, knowing exactly what you were talking about.  
“Go get ready and I will meet you at the Quinjet,” You say making Wanda and Nat leave your room. Pepper stays.  
“Is there anything I can do?” she asks. You shake our head.  
“Sometimes I hate being an Avenger,” you mumble, being honest with her. She walks over to you and gives you a big hug.  
“You will get another chance,” Pepper says. “I mean, the man is crazy for you. Do you really think the cancelled date will change that?” You shake your head and get ready for the mission.  
Before you walk out of your room, Pepper pulls you into a hug.  
“Stay alert, stay alive,” She whispers in your ear before letting you go. “Don’t let your head get clouded by Steve and you.” You nod and walk away to join the team.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Steve walks over to you in the Quinjet. He is rubbing his hands on his pants, and then he sits down next to you.  
“Can we have our date another night?” he asks with a low voice. You look up at him and give him a smile.  
“Of course,” you answered and place a hand on his arm. He smiles big at you and you let at a small laugh. “Did you think I would back out because our job got in the way?” Steve shrugs looking down at the floor.  
“Steve,” you say moving your hand to his hand. You lace your fingers together. “I’m not backing out. We will have our date.” He looks down at your hands locked together then up to your face. He lets out a deep breath.  
“Good,” he says and gives you a kiss on the check. You both sit back and wait to arrive at the destination. Not letting each other’s hand go. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Your orders were simple, go in and save the hostages. You took down every Hydra agent in your way looking for the hostages. Nat, Bucky and you had split up searching more ground. Steve, Wanda and Sam were also in the building, but one story down, also looking for the hostages. You swiftly take down a Hydra guard that been standing with his back against you. Nat had taught you many ways to do so without shooting your guns, and it was quieter. You hear voices from the room to your left so you opened it. You froze in the doorway.  
The woman in front of you where someone you never thought you would see in a place like this and much less experimenting on a man strapped to one of the tables in the room. The scene in front of you was horrifying. You felt your blood turn cold.  
“Mom” you whispered.  
“Oh, hey honey,” she said. “I have waited on you.”


	9. Chapter 9

“Did Y/N just say mom?” Nat asked the others over the coms.  
“Yes!” Tony proclaims.  
“Y/N, don’t have a mother,” Sam states.   
“Yes, she does. Beth, her mother, just left her and her father when she was 8 years old, because of Y/N powers.” Steve says over the come. “Y/N, status”. When she didn’t answer Steve and the others started to get worried.   
“Anyone got eyes on Y/N?” Tony questioned, still outside the facility. Nobody does.   
“Nat and Bucky, go to Y/N last known position. I am on my way,” Steve barks out the orders. Then he starts running. This was bad, really bad. Y/N always answered her comes, always. Steve had a bad feeling in his stomach.

 

Steve, Bucky and Nat came running into the hallway the last knew Y/N had been in at the same time. There were five guards standing outside a door. They took them down fast and easy, working together like a well-oiled machine.   
“She must be in the room,” Bucky says. Steve doesn’t waste a minute. He kicks the door in. The sight before his eyes makes him pause for a minute. Y/N was strapped to a table in the room and a woman was injecting something in her arm.  
“Get away from her,” Bucky demands with anger radiating from his eyes.   
“Don’t touch her” Nat yells at the woman, fist clenched.  
“This is family business,” the woman by Y/N says as she takes out the needle from Y/N’s arm. “You really should leave or else you will be killed.” Y/N starts screaming in pain, this wakes Steve from his frozen state. The women step back with a big smile on her lips. Steve sees the other table in the room that is occupied by an unconscious man and the three guards that are standing around the room.  
Bucky and Nat take action directly. Bucky shots one of the guards and Nat takes down the one to the left. The third one shots at Bucky, but Bucky manages to avoid the bullets. Steve throws his shield at the guard and knocks him out. Y/N is still screaming trying to get free from her bonds and suddenly the area around her is in flames. It is like she has cast a burning circle around her to protect her. The women in the corner are laughing. Steve knew that she must be Beth, Y/N’s mother.   
“You are too late,” Beth laughs. His stomach is in knots. What had she done to Y/N? Nat walks runs over to her, giving her one punch in the face. The woman faints and falls to the floor. Nat walks over to the unconscious man getting ready to free him when he jumps up with a gun in his hand. Bucky shots him in the head.  
Steve is getting nervous about Y/N’s state. The fire is still burning hot. And she is tapped on the table.   
“Y/N, you got to calm down,” Bucky shouted over the flames. But she did not hear him over the roaring fire, or maybe the pain is consuming her. Steve felt helpless. She was still tied to a table in the middle of the fire and not responsive. This was bad. He made up his mind. He took a deep breath and looks eyes with Bucky.   
“I will be right back,” Steve says and takes another deep breath.  
“Steve, what are you doing?” Bucky yells as Steve walks through the fire to get to Y/N. It hurt and burned, but not as much as it hurt to see her lying there broken screaming.  
“Y/N, you need to snap out of it,” Steve started loosening her restraints. She stops screaming only whimpers. Her body is glistening with sweat. “Y/N, please” Steve begs. He gets the restraints of her and is looking around. The fire is still burning. On the other side, Bucky and Nat are watching on looking helpless. He needed to get her out now.  
“Doll, please look at me,” Steve begs her. “You are safe. I got you. You need to put the fire out.” Y/N looks up at him her eyes filled with pain. The fire dies and Y/Ns body becomes limp in his arms.  
“Y/N!” Steve yells.   
“We need to go to the Quinjet now,” Nat orders the guys. She picks up Steve’s shield and gestures for Bucky to take Y/N mother with him. Steve runs out of the room to get to the Quinjet.   
“Y/N, stay with me,” he whispers. Her body is burning up and her pulse is weak. Nat and Bucky are running behind him. Nat is talking in the com with the team, but all Steve can concentrate on is Y/N pulse. One sentence that Nat said on the coms was all Steve could hear. “It was false information, no hostages.” Steve runs up the ram to the Quinjet. Bruce meets him and points him to the table. Steve slowly puts Y/N down on it.   
“Get us up in the air, now!” Bruce yells. Clint runs to the controls and they take off. Steve looks down on Y/N on the table. He feels helpless. Bruce sets up monitors and trying to keep her stable. There was only so much he could do. Tony called ahead so there would be help ready when they landed. Everyone’s eyes are on Y/N. What the hell had happened?

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Steve was sitting by Y/N bed in her room at the med bay. She had still not woken up and it was slowly killing him. He just wanted to see her beautiful eyes and her smile. Talk to her. Hear her laugh again. Dr Cho, Bruce and Tony were running all sorts of tests to find what Y/N mother had done to her, but so far they hadn’t found anything. They had not found anything wrong with Y/N either. Her pulse had become stable again and it was like she was sleeping. Steve hadn’t left her side since they rescued her 12 hours earlier. He knew that Frank, Y/N father, was on his way. The Hydra mission had been false information, all because they wanted Y/N. Hydra wanted to have her and do whatever Beth had done to her. Steve knew that Y/N was a powerful inhuman, maybe they wanted to try and make her into a new kind of brainwashed weapon. It was all a mess.  
“Doll, please open those beautiful eyes,” Steve says after a while. Thinking that it might help if he talks to her. There is a knock on the doorframe. Steve looks up. It’s Bucky.  
“Steve, I can sit with her. You really should take a shower and get changed,” Bucky says walking into the room. “I am not leaving her, Buck,” Steve says looking down at her. Bucky nods.   
“I will get you something to eat,” he says and leaves the room. Steve’s thumb is stroking the back of your hand.  
“Y/N, you need to wake up,” Steve pressing a kiss to the hand he been holding for hours. “I can’t do this without you. I would not survive without you.” Y/N starts moving a bit and Steve presses the button by her bed. Dr Cho comes running into the room.

 

You were feeling like your body was on fire and your head was swimming around. You could hear a voice, but you could not really hear what was said or who was talking. You feel someone holding your right hand, a thumb caressing the back side of your hand. It is kind of grounding and you feel your consciousness coming back. “Y/N, you need to wake up.” It is Steve’s voice, it sounded so different, but you knew it was him. A kiss is pressed against your right hand and you want to talk to him. “I can’t do this without you. I would not survive without you.” I am here you want to scream. You try to move and open your eyes. Steps come running into the room. You hear Dr Cho’s voice and you open your eyes. The first thing you see is Steve. He is smiling down at you, his face is covered with soot and it makes his blue eyes stand out even more. You also notice he still had his stealth suit on.   
“Y/N,” Dr Cho says and your eyes flick over to her. “How are you feeling?”   
“I feel kind of groggy,” You croak out. Your mouth was dry. Dr Cho hands you a glass with a straw. You slowly drink and it feels like heaven. She gives you a check-up before she nods noting something down in her tablet.   
“You need to stay here for observation for the night,” Dr Cho says looking at you. You nod. “Do you know what your mother did to you?” You look down in your lap nodding slowly. Steve lifts an eyebrow at this and Dr Cho meets his eyes. She is shaking her head. They hear a commotion out in the hallway. Your father comes sprinting into the room, with Bruce, Tony and Nat hot in his heels. Saved by your dad, yeah, that sounded about right.  
“Y/N!” Frank cries out. You look up feeling the tears pooling in your eyes. “Dad,” you croak out. Tony makes a gesture for the other people in the room to leave you and your father alone. Steve looks at Y/N, bending down and pressing a kiss to her cheek before he realises her hand and leaves the room.   
Frank walks over to your side and pulls you into his arms.   
“You scared me,” he admits. You feel the tears running down your cheeks.   
“Did they tell you?” You ask when he released you from his arms. Frank looks around for a chair. He won’t look at you. “You heard it was Beth?”   
“You mean that it was your mother?” Frank asks still not looking at you.  
“She is not my mother,” you snap at your father. “From here on out she is Beth.” Frank nods looking down at his hands.  
“Did you know?” you ask sitting up on the bed. Frank looks over at you with tears in his eyes.  
“Sweetheart,” he tries.  
“Did you know what she did to me when I was a child?” you demand.   
“I did not know,” he says. You can clearly see that he is hiding something.  
“But?” you continue pressing him.  
“I had my suspicions,” he admits tears running from his eyes. You look at him for a moment. Your mind is screaming and your heart is breaking.  
“Get out,” you point at the door.  
“Sweetheart,” Franks stands up.  
“Get the fuck out!” you yell still pointing at the door. You could not look at him any longer. He thought Beth might have done something to you, but he never once told you. How could he keep something like this from you? 

 

Outside the room the group stops, not wanting to go too far from Y/N.   
“She knows what her mother did to her,” Dr Cho says.   
“What did she say?” Bruce wonders his brows connecting as he looks down at the tablet in his hands.  
“She did not get the chance to say anything,” Steve mumbles. “Frank showed up.” Bruce and Tony share a look.   
“What do you know?” Dr Coo asks. Bruce hands her his tablet. She lets out a gasp and looks back at the door into Y/N room.  
“What?” Nat and Steve say at the same time.   
“It looks like the Manchurian Candidate and Steve aren’t the only Super Soldiers anymore,” Tony admits. Steve pales, Nat pulls a hand on his arm.   
“Get the fuck out!” they hear Y/N yelling from her room. Steve and Nat run to the door. Frank is standing by Y/N bed with tears running from his face.  
“Get out!” Y/N yells and Nat walks over to Frank. She puts takes his arms and drags him out of the room. When he is out Steve walks over to the door and closes it. Tears are running own Y/N face, her breathing is hitching. He walks over to the bed and pulls her into his arms. She hugs him tight. Steve does not say a word, just letting her cry.

 

Minutes pass and you start calming down. Steve takes a step back and sits down on at a chair beside the bed. You miss his arms around you directly.   
“If you are going to yell at me,” you said and looked at him. “Please do so now.”  
“Why would I yell at you,” Steve wondered taking her hand in his.  
“I forgot my training,” you said, looking down on her lap. “I let her get the drop on me.”  
“She is your mother,” Steve said. “You were not prepared to see her there. You did nothing wrong.”  
“Beth is not my mother,” you say meeting Steve’s eyes. “She is the woman that gave birth to me, but she is also the woman that experimented on me in her womb and then when I was born.” Steve looks at you with big eyes. You close your eyes. You were a fucking lab rat to your mother for several years.   
“Talk to me,” Steve caresses the back of your hand with his thumb. You open your eyes and look at him.   
“I don’t know what to say,” you whisper. Steve stands up and sits down at your bed.   
“Beth is Hydra,” you look down at your lap. “She told me she did not want a baby and when Hydra wanted her to experiment on doing new super soldiers; she volunteered using the baby growing in herself. She had hoped I would die in her stomach. Hydra wanted to make soldiers out of children and babies all to mould a new kind of obedient soldier that they could control. A new kind of weapon. She experimented on me in the womb and then she continued until the day she left.” Steve brushes away a few tears. “My father had his suspicions, but he never said a word.” Steves' face is close to you and you can feel his breath on your face. You look each other in the eyes. Steve has yet to say a word. His hand is on your cheek.   
There is a knock on the door and Steve moves back from you. Dr Cho, Tony and Bruce are in the doorway.  
“Can we come in?” Bruce asks. You nod and Steve stands up to leave.   
“Stay,” you say pulling him down to sit on your bed, but you pull a little too hard so he loses his balance and falls on you.  
“Sorry,” you cry out. Steve just laughs and sits upon your bed.   
“Don’t worry, Doll. You did not hurt me,” he says caressing your cheek. You blush.  
Bruce clears his throat.  
“I know what you are here to say,” You muses. “I am now a super soldier like Steve and Bucky.”  
“Yes and No,” Tony smirks at you. Steve turns his head from you. His eyes focusing on Tony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to let you all know that tomorrow I am starting my journey to move back to Sweden. And It will take a couple of days and I don't really know when I will be able to post the next part of the story. Hopefully at the end of next week. I am going to be travelling about 1750 miles in a fully packed car. Driving through the UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Danmark and finally Sweden. Please be patient with me.


	10. Chapter 10

“Explain” Steve demands. Bruce shifts his weight from one leg to another.  
“We can’t really explain. Not without more research,” Bruce is looking down at his tablet then he looks up at you meeting your wide eyes. “What we know is that your blood has many similarities with Steve and Bucky’s blood, but your bloodwork also shows an increase in your inhuman DNA.” You sigh looking away.  
“Beth told me that it was a mistake that she became pregnant with me, but that HYDRA though it would be good to try a new kind of experiment, on fetuses. They thought it could be better having a scientist doing things on foetuses, then on adult persons. Beth’s idea was to do it on her own baby,” you start explaining what she had told you when you were alone with her. “With the hope that I would die in her womb, Hydras hope was that I would be the first super warrior born as a child so they could easily make me as they wanted me from the beginning, without brainwashing. Less work, more efficient killing machine.” Steve's hand gives your hand a squish. It gives you the energy to continue talking. “But I came out seems like a normal child. Beth told me that she continued experimenting on me until my father started becoming suspicious of her activities with me. Then about a year after my fire powers came to light.” Tony snickers at the pun. Everyone else shakes their head. “My father took contact with Fury when Beth wanted to send me away to an institution. What she really wanted was to send me to HYDRA. But dad and Fury put a stop to her plans, without really knowing what they were doing.” You take a deep breath. “Beth left and nobody noticed that she was HYDRA. I want away for school and then I became an Avenger. She has been keeping tabs on me and she was waiting for me. She injected me with something that activated the super soldier serum in my body.” Bruce and Dr Cho share a look.  
“This explains so much,” Tony says typing away on his tablet. “We need to go to the lab.” They leave you alone with Steve.  
“I am so sorry,” Steve says looking eyes with you. He is still holding your hand. You move closer to him. His breath can be felt on your skin. There is a knock on the door. You move back. Bucky walks in, smiling when he sees Y/N awake.  
“I heard you were awake,” Bucky walks over to the bed and gives her a kiss on the forehead.  
“Punk, go and take a shower. You smell. I will stay here with Y/N.” Steve looks at you and you nod at him.  
“Go, I will be fine,” you say. Bucky makes himself comfortable on the chair beside your bed. Steve kisses your cheek and leaves the room. You look at Bucky and he looks at you. The room is silent.  
“Do you want to talk about it, cry about it or do something to take your mind of it?” Bucky asks and you smile at him.  
“I want to take my mind off it,” you answer honestly. All that had happened the last day was not something you wanted to think about right now.  
“Just what I thought,” Bucky nods fishing up his mobile sending a quick text. After a while the door opens and in comes Wanda, Nat, Sam, Pepper and Clint. They are carrying pizza boxes and water bottles. You laugh at the sight.  
“Hungry?” Bucky smiles at you.  
“Starving,” you answer.  
You eat together laughing, talking about anything other then what had happened. That is how Steve finds you an hour later.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Steve stood in the doorway looking at his family, because that was what they were. His family and Y/N was the women he loved. Right now he needed to push his feelings aside and be there for her. Help her through all of this.  
“Steve,” Sam cheers as he Steve standing in the door.  
“Hey!” Steve says to the group.  
“Come in, Steve,” Y/N says with a big smile on her lips, but Steve can see the sadness in her eyes. “There is pizza for you too.” She holds up a slice of pizza to her mouth and takes a big bite. He walks into the room and sits down on the empty chair. His eyes are on her, trying to assess how she really was doing. She gives him an eye roll and looks with a smirk on Bucky.  
“Bucky” she says with her voice dripping of sugar. Bucky looks at her with one eyebrow raised. Nat looks at Y/N with a smirk, like she knows what Y/N is going to say.  
“Please tell us more about Steve’s reckless ways from when he was younger,” Y/N says still sweet as sugar. Bucky laughs and looks over at Steve. Fuck was the only thought in Steve’s head. He really did not want her to hear all that. Not now, not ever. Even though he knew that she already heard a lot of stories.  
“Do you want to hear the time he tried defending a girl out back of the cinemas or the time he stopped tried to stop a gang of older kids bullying a kid,” Bucky askes looking smug.  
“Both,” Y/N says rubbing her hands together. Steve takes a slice of pizza and his eyes are at Y/N. She was smiling and laughing at Bucky’s storytelling, but the hollow look in her eyes was still there. It was killing him. She had always been a light in the Avengers. Always had a smile for everyone and always putting everyone over herself. She was the sun and the moon for Steve. He was hopelessly in love with her and all he wanted at this moment was to make that hollow look in her eyes disappear. However, he would go about doing it. He had no clue.

 

 

Steve was looking at you, he ate his pizza slices, but his eyes never left you. At least not a long while, his eyes always finding you again. You tried your hardest not to look at him. Not now. You were scared you would break down under his eyes.  
“Wow, Steve was quite reckless before he became Captain America,” you get out after Bucky finished his stories. Clint made a snorting sound.  
“What have I missed?” you ask looking around the room. Sam looks at everyone, but you. Nat and Bucky share a look. Steve can’t look at you. This was strange. A minute ago he could not stop looking at you.  
“Steve is still the same reckless Punk he has always been,” Bucky says. “Hoping out of planes without a chute and if you need a more recent example. Then take yesterday, when he walked through fire to get to Y/N.” Your stop eating, your eyebrows raised and looks to Steve, who is sending Bucky a death glare.  
“You walked through fire to get to me?” you ask keeping your eyes fixed on Steve.  
“I will always get you” Steve shrugged like it was not a big deal. “Always.” You looked down at your pizza. He had literally walked through fire to get to you. It was a lot to take in.  
“You most have gotten burned,” you say looking up at him again. He just shrugs his shoulders again. Nat shoves him hard. Steve looks up at you and in his eyes you see so many feelings twirling around. Although you could not pinpoint the feelings. Clint clears his throat and Nat gives him a hard stare. You look down at your hands, trying to process. Steve had walked through your fire to get to you. He risked his life to get to you. You knew that he would have done it for anyone in the team, and probably to a complete stranger as well, but something in both Bucky and Steve’s voices said that this was something more. You open your mouth to say something when there is a knock on the door and Dr Cho walks in.  
“I see someone is having a pizza party,” She smiles. You nod. “Well, I am only here to say that you can spend the night in your own room if you want,” Dr Cho continues. At this, you sit up a bit straighter. “We figure you would be more comfortable in your own bed.”  
“Yes, please,” you say directly. Steve looks from you and over to Dr Cho.  
“Is that really a good idea?” Steve wonders and Dr Cho sighs. Tony had said that Steve would be opposed to this.  
“Y/N’s results show that she is healthy,” Dr Cho says trying to be patient. “Why should she stay here, when she is perfectly fine.” Steve squints at the doctor before he nods. Nat, Pepper, Clint, Wanda and Sam leave the room after you promise to get in touch if you needed anything. Bucky and Steve stay with you while Dr Cho takes of all the monitors you had attached to you.  
“I want to see you again tomorrow,” Dr Cho says before she lets leave. You agree and when you sit pull of the blanket from your body you see that you are only in a hospital gown, something you had not noticed before. Bucky laughs at your facial expression before he walks over to the closet and pull out your fluffy rob.  
“Thank you,” You say and slip it on. Bucky holds out his arm to you.  
“Will you let me escort you to your room” Bucky smiles at you. You slip your arm in his.  
“Yes, please” you say happily. “Bye, Steve. Get some sleep.” Together you leave the room. Steve steps out after you in the hallway and you can feel his eyes burning in the back of your neck, but you ignore it.  
“You know his only worried about you,” Bucky says when you reach your room. He does not have to say he means Steve, it was obvious.  
“I know,” you mutter. “I just wish.. I don’t know.” Bucky gives you a knowing smile.  
“Do you want me to come in and keep you company?” Bucky asks dropping the subject of Steve. You shake your head.  
“I am going to take a long shower and then try and get some sleep,” You say and give him a big hug. “But thank you.” Bucky holds you close and you feel safe. Bucky was a good friend.  
“Call me if you need me,” He says and you say goodnight to each other. You walk into your room and go directly into your bathroom, strip down and take a hot shower.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Over an hour later you are sitting on your bed crying. It all was a mess. You were finally back in your own room, but you did not know what to do. Your mother was Hydra. Your dad had kept secrets from you. And you were now a super soldier or at least kind of. There is a knock on the door, but you just kept crying, not having the energy to go open the door. There is another knock on the door, then silence. Whoever been outside must have given up. Then the door opens and there is Steve. You look up at him, but you can’t say a word, just continuing crying. Thinking he would leave you alone when he sees you in this state, but Steve simply walks over to you in big steps sitting down in bed with you and pulling you into his arms. He lets you cry and cry. His hand running up and down your back. It felt so good being in his arms, feeling his heat and having his scent surrounding you. It was safe and you knew right there and then that you were by no means over him. No, you had fallen even more in love with him how that could be a possibility, you seriously had no idea.  
Wow, your life really was fucked up and you had no idea what to do about it.

 

 

“What do you need?” Steve asked when you had stopped crying.  
“I don’t know,” you stood up and walked to the window looking out on the rain.  
“Wait here, I will be right back,” Steve says leaving you alone. You sigh. A couple of minutes later your door opens. You turn around. Steve was standing there with his arms full with things. He walks over to your bed and put it down. You could now see that he had your favourite blanket that you always used when you watched movies with the team, a lot of chocolate, water bottles and a boxset with Doctor Who. You let out a little laugh.  
“Am I that predictable?” you wondered. Steve shook his head.  
“No,” Steve said. “I just wanted to make you feel better and I remember you telling me that Doctor Who was your go-to for everything.” You nod and he sets everything up. You sit up against your headboard and pat the place beside you in bed. Steve walks over and sits down close to you. He wraps an arm around you and pulls you closer to his body. You lay the blanket over the two of you and take a bit of chocolate. Steve press play and you start watching from the first episode where the ninth Doctor meets Rose. You smile because Doctor Who always made everything better. It had been your go-to from you were a teenager trying to figure out your life and powers and it never ever let you down.

 

 

Steve looks down at Y/N. She has fallen asleep resting against his chest. He knew the exact moment she fell asleep. He had felt her whole body relax against him. Their Doctor Who marathon was still playing, he did not dare to move. He did not want to wake her up. She needed her rest. Steve loved having her this close, feeling her in his arms and he wished he could fall asleep every night with her by his side. He was tried but did not want to fall asleep yet, no, he wanted to look at her and enjoy being close to her. Seeing her so relaxed. Steve could feel his eyes getting heavier and heavier, and finally, sleep overtook him. Steve dreamed happy dreams about the two of you dancing at Tony’s party, walking around Brooklyn and finally having a picnic in the woods. He woke up of Y/N screaming. His heart froze of the sound, it was so much alike the scream he heard when they found her strapped to the table. He sat up and took her into his arms. Starting to whisper soothing words to her. 

 

You wake up screaming. A pair of arms are around you in an instant. You had been back at the table, with a fire raging around you. And you had seen your father and mother hugging and laughing on the other side of the fire.   
“Doll, I am here,” Steve says pulling you into his arms, tears are running down your face. “You are safe.” You crawl up in Steve’s lap pulling him even closer to you. “I am here. I am not going to let anything happen to you.” Steve’s calming voice brings you out from the dream and you start relaxing against him. He presses a kiss to your forehead and you try to calm down your breathing. You were sitting in Steve’s lap. You were safe. And still your mind is screaming at you. To run. To hid. Steve kept whispering to you. That you were safe. That he had you. That he was not going anywhere.  
After a while you slide out of Steve’s lap.  
“Thank you,” you said unable to meet his eyes.  
“Want to talk about it?” he asks and you shake your head. He sighs and pulls you back to his shoulder and lay down with you in bed again.  
“Doll, I can’t fix your problems, but I promise you that I am here for you if you want to talk. About anything.” Steve says and you look up at him. You see the honesty in his eyes and smile at him. You press a kiss against his cheek and you just lay there feeling safe until you fall asleep again.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

The next morning you wake up pressed to Steve hot body, and it was in a double way. He was hot as hell but he was also warm. You try getting out of his grip on you carefully, but his arms hold you tighter.  
“Steve, I need to go to the bathroom,” you whisper, and all you get in response is a groan. You finally get yourself tangled out of his grip, sprinting to the bathroom. When you finished your business you look at your reflection in the mirror. It was immediately something you wished you had not done. You looked great, healthier than you ever looked. Your skin was glowing and you did not have a single pimple. But your chest felt heavy and your head was a mess. Why did it you appearance not look like you were feeling? Then it hit you. The Super Soldier Serum. You sigh and washed your face with cold water.  
When you walked out in your room Steve was sitting up in your bed. His hair was a bit dishevelled and he looked like he belonged there in your bed. You could easily picture waking up with him every morning. He did not say a word and neither did you. But the looks you gave each other said everything. He patted the bed beside him and you walked over there.  
“Talk,” he said in a husky voice. You know what he means and you know you can’t avoid it any longer.  
“You know, I never thought I would see her again” you say looking down at your hands. “All of this is like a big box of memories that I really don’t want to open.” You sigh and Steve looks at you. His gaze completely empty of pity or anything close to pity. You know you needed to talk about it. Maybe it was time to open the box of bad memories. Steve is not saying a word. “She never showed me love when I grew up. I would say that she was kind of indifferent to me until the day that I almost burnt down my bedroom.” Steve places a hand on your arm, giving you a light squeeze. “She was hysterical, screaming that I was a freak and should be looked up,” you continue a tear leaving your eye. Steve wipes it away. “Dad was firm and told her no. His daughter belonged at home. She gave him an ultimatum. Me or her. I was in the room. She could not even look at me and it ended up with her leaving, when dad made it clear that I was more important than she was.” You suck in a deep breath. Steve is not saying a word just nods at you to continue. “And if I am completely honest with myself, I always thought he would change his mind and wanting her back. But he always had my back. Always.” More tears are running down your face and Steve pulls you close again.  
“He loves you,” Steve mumbles with his mouth pressed to your head. You try to shake your head.  
“I thought so,” you say and pull back some looking up in Steve’s mesmerising blue eyes. “But he had his suspicions about what she did to me but never told me. Not a single word.”  
“I am not defending him, but Doll, you know you need to talk to him at some point,” Steve says. You shake your head. “You need to get his side of all this.”  
“Doll, he is your father,” Steve continues. You look down.  
“He was the one person I thought would never lie to me, well him and Wyatt,” You admit. “Like how can I get passed this? It feels like someone has ripped my life away from me. That I am standing in the ashes of my life. Like I just burned down my life. Who the hell am I?”  
“You are the same person you have always been,” Steve says. “You are an incredible woman, strong and fierce. You are kind, loyal and always putting everyone else ahead of you.” You blush a bit at these words.  
“What happened to you does not change that,” Steve states matter of a fact.  
“I…” you say swallowing hard. “I think I am dangerous now.” Steve looks at you with big eyes. You lift your hand and the fire is burning blue in your right hand you. You toss the flame to your left hand like it’s a ball. That was something you never been able to do before. Steve’s eyes grew even bigger. He was quiet and you felt ashamed. Was he scared of you? Were you a monster now?


	11. Chapter 11

Steve looked at Y/N and his heart was breaking. She was so lost right now. Something she never been. As long as he had known her she had been a rock for everyone in the team, but now… It hurt him and he wished he could do anything to help her. Whatever she needed. Whatever she would ask for he would give her without a second thought. He knew her like the back of his hand and he knew that she was not dangerous. Yes, she had gotten a lot of new powers and her firepower had obviously been magnified. But deep down he knew he would never ever be afraid of her. Never in a million years. She was still the same person that she always been, just more powerful. With a heart of gold.   
Her new ability with fire was amazing. He could not get over how she handled the flame like it was a boll, tossing it from one hand to the next. It was mesmerizing. She was mesmerizing. He could look at her all day if she let him. She was the love of his life and he knew it. All that was left was for her to know it, but first, he needed to give her time. To get a grip of her new powers and to process what had happened to her. He just wanted to be here for her. Make her see that he was the one for her and that he would always be by her side.

You looked at Steve. He had still not said a word and your heart was beating faster and faster. You felt so alone and lost. Did he really think you were dangerous now? You extinguished the fire in your hand and start thinking about leaving the room, but where would you go. This was your room. Steve takes a deep breath and meets your eyes.  
“You are not dangerous, Y/N,” he says and walks over to you. He hesitates before he takes your hands in his, and the hesitation hurts you. A week ago he would not have hesitated. “You are still you.” You nod at this and take a step back.   
“I need to shower before I meet up with Dr Cho and Bruce,” you say and look at your feet to avoid looking at Steve’s face. Scared of what you would have seen if you looked. Steve sighs.   
“Don’t forget to eat some breakfast,” he says and leaves the room after saying goodbye. You sink down on your bed. There is an ache in your chest and it is hard to breathe. It feels like the room is shrinking.   
“F.R.I.D.A.Y. can you send help,” you get out. A moment later Bruce runs in the room. He sinks down in front of you putting his hands on the side of your face.  
“Hey, Y/N,” Bruce says with an extra calm voice. “Look at me.” You look up at him. “Take a couple of deep breaths with me.” You do as he says and the blackness around your vision disappears. Nat walks into the room and see what is happening. She sits down next to you on the bed and strokes your back. After a couple of minutes, the ache in your chest had eased away and you give Bruce a big hug.   
“What happened?” Nat wonders and you just shake your head. Bruce gives Nat a pointed look and she does not ask anything more, but it seemed like they were having a quiet conversation between themselves.   
“I am going to take a shower,” you say and stand up. Bruce blushes and stands up from the floor. Nat smirks and gestures for Bruce to leave the room.  
“I will get us some breakfast while you shower,” Nat says and leaves you alone in your room again. This you really showered and when you walked out in your bedroom again Nat sat on your bed with two cups of coffee and two bagels. She handed you a cup and you took a sip. It was Caffé Mocha.   
“Mmm... You really do know me,” you said to Nat, who chuckled at you.   
“So what happened last night?” Nat wonders and takes a sip of her coffee. You look at her.  
“I mean, I saw Steve walk into your room yesterday with blankets and chocolate and I saw him leave this morning.” You look away from Nat.  
“He kept me company,” you answer and Nat look you up and down.   
“Just company?” Nat smirks and you feel yourself get stiff.  
“Yes, we watched Doctor Who and fell asleep. Then this morning we talked.” You say trying to relax.  
“About your relationship?” Nat smirks, but you shake your head. Her eyes go wide for just a second, but you see it.   
“No, about everything that happened with Beth and my father,” you say and take a bit from your bagel. After this, you eat in silence. You could feel her eyes on you, but you try to ignore it.   
“Let’s get this check-up over with,” you say with a flat voice when you have eaten your breakfast. Nat nods. You need something to look forward to. And just like that, you get an idea.   
“How about we get Wanda and Pepper to join us tonight and we get stupid drunk,” you smile at Nat and rubbing your hands together. Nat lifts an eyebrow at you and it’s like you are hit by a truck when it occurs to you.  
“No!” you scream right out. Can you even get drunk now? Steve and Bucky could not get drunk. Well, unless they drank Thor’s mead. But that shit was just nasty.  
You door is open with a boom and Bucky runs in.   
“What happened?” he wonders looking around the room. You are standing there feeling utterly devastated. You could not get drunk.  
“She just realised she can’t get drunk with us anymore,” Nat smirks and Bucky started chuckling. You shoot them a killing glare and stalks out of the room. Muttering under your breath about being a fucking super soldier. You hear them laughing at you. Maybe you should do like Steve and break a couple of boxing bags. At least you still had chocolate. Chocolate always understood. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

It had been over a month since you became a Super Soldier. You trained with Bucky and Steve. Tony had built you a fireproof room so that you could train to control your powers again and explore what you could do now. You could still control fire, but on a larger scale. Bruce thought it was the serum that made it easier for you to control. Another side-effect had been that you now could produce smoke. You looked forward to try and use that as cover on a mission, but Steve would still not let you get out in the field. He said that he wanted you to get time to get to grips of what had really happened. This made you angry. You really wanted to go out and fight the bad guys.   
You had nightmares of what had happened to you, but you were dealing with it the best you could. Or at least that was what you were telling you yourself. In fact it meant that you were doing everything you could to keep it from Steve, and that was hard. Maybe he knew, maybe not. You had no real idea, he had not said anything about it. Since the first night he had slept in your room after your Doctor Who marathon, it has become a kind of reoccurring thing. At least three nights a week Steve falls asleep in your bed watching Doctor Who. His excuse was that he was invested in the story now, but it felt like he was worried about you. The night Steve slept in your bed was the only nights you never woke up drenched in sweat from nightmares. Even though you started the night with a bit of distance between the two of you, in the end, you were cuddled together and you often woke up in Steve’s arms feeling safe. The nights Steve was away on missions, someone else stayed at you. Even if you almost always started the night alone, you got your nightmares and F.R.I.D.A.Y. sent someone to your room. Last night Clint had slept in your bed and the night before it had been Nat.   
Steve was away on a mission with Bucky and they were not expected to be back in at least two more days. You sat in your bed missing Steve, it was hard to wake up in his arms and not kiss him every morning. It was hard being so close to him and not be close to him. Not close like in a relationship. He treated you like a friend and nothing more. It was frustrating. 

You remember back to one week ago.   
You woke up to a sleeping Steve snuggling close to you. All you wanted was to cuddle with him and sleep the day away, but to go back to sleep with Steve was a luxury you couldn’t afford. Not when your feelings for the man so strong love and all he was giving you was friendship. Yes, of course, you had felt how he was affected by laying close to you. Every night and morning you felt the hardness of him close to you, but you always told yourself that it was only a natural response for a hetero man to react to a woman body.   
“Good morning, Doll,” Steve whisper, nuzzles in your neck and kiss you right under your ear. It made your insides melt and you went wet so fast. Then he leaves your bed. Friends, you need to tell yourself to stop from attacking him with kisses and pull him back into your bed. You talked some before he left your room. 

And then in the afternoon, there was a knock on your door, you thought it was Steve, but when you open your door it was your father. He had been calling every day since you got him booted from your hospital room, but you had never answered. You had not been ready to talk to him and the only person that seemed to understand that was Bucky. Everyone else had been on you to talk to our father. To get his side of things, but you just could not. He had kept things from you. Even if it just had been suspicions, to know they had been able to help you. Maybe Tony and Bruce had been able to stop what had happened to you or at least made you more prepared. And now there he had been outside your door. Maybe I was time to talk to him.  
“Y/N, just hear me out and then I will leave,” Frank says before you can open your mouth. You step back and let him in. You see Steve standing in the corridor with a big smile on his lips and you just know he set this up. Steve had meddled and you were not sure how to react to that. You close your door and walk into your room. You gesture for your father to sit down in your armchair.   
“Don’t get mad at Steve,” Frank says. “He only wants to help.” You nod at this. Yes, Steve always wants to help.   
“You have every right to be mad at me for not telling you about my suspicions about Beth,” Frank starts. He is spinning his watch, but looking right at you. “But you need to understand, Y/N, that when I thought this you were just a child. I did not want to confuse you about her actions or make you into a lab rat somewhere.” He paused and shifts in the chair. You nod at him to continue. “I wanted to spare you all of it and when your mother left, I thought that was it. I thought we would never ever see or hear from her again. I had no idea that she was Hydra. The reason that I did not tell you when you got older was that I did not want to make you feel like an experiment, you are my daughter and I love you. No matter what Beth has done to you.” He stops talking and looks at you. A whole lot of thoughts are rolling around in your head and all you can think about it who much you wished that Steve been in the room with you. His arms around you were what you needed right now, and maybe even to hear what he thought about your father’s explanation  
“I told Steve all of this when he came to visit me,” Frank says and stands up. He walks over to your window. Steve visited your father. “I think he wanted to get an explanation of my behaviour. To understand my side.”   
“Steve is a good friend,” you state and your father turns to you. His brows are almost up in his hair, but you try not to read anything into it. “I just can’t understand how you kept this from me all these years, dad.” Frank nods.   
“I should have told you,” he says. “But I was scared of what the information would do to you. I was scared that I would lose you. I mean, what father does not notice that his wife is experimenting on their child. For years.” Frank draws his hands over his face.   
“Do you know what she did to me and why?” you ask and Frank shakes his head. So you tell him all that you know and all that you had become because of it.  
“Oh, honey,” Frank whispers after you told him. You could see that he wanted to hug you so you walk over to him and hug him. He pulls you tight and holds on to you like you are his lifeline. You can feel him shaking. It takes a while for you to understand that he is crying. So you stand there holding on to each other, giving each other time. After that, you talk for a couple of hours. A real honest talk about everything, or not really everything. You don’t talk about your feelings for Steve, but almost everything else. In the end, you decide to try and work on your relationship and give it time. Time to heal and time to understand each other. 

So Steve had more or less helped you come to terms with your father. Frank and you had talked on the phone two times since his visit and had decided to get together for a dinner next week. It was hard for you to know what to do with Steve. He acted like a friend and the fact that he hadn’t asked you out on a date again, made you feel like he must have lost all his feelings for you when it came out that you were experimented on and a Super Soldier. It hurt. It hurt so much that sometimes it felt like you were going to scream. You wanted to talk to Steve about it, but were afraid to ask him. Afraid of what he would say. Maybe he would say right out that he did not want to date a science experiment. The only good thing that had come out of your wondering was that you had excelled on controlling your powers and knowing all the new things that being a Super Soldier entitled. And because Steve still would not let you go on missions you had started to feel left out. Like you did not any longer fit in with the Avengers. Some of your teammates treated you like you were made out of glass, not Nat and Bucky. They gave you hell in training and you loved it. Steve was the worst when it came to treating you like glass. He wanted you to take time to get to grips with everything, and that was probably the reason why you never told him about your nightmares. He did not need more to fuel his fire about keeping you at home and away from missions. You wondered if he thought you would break or if you would snap at a mission and kill everyone?  
You had thought about leaving the team and join the X-men, but this was your family, in thick and thin. They deserved more from you than you leaving them. With those thoughts, you left your room and walked out to the common room. You missed Steve, but Nat, Wanda and Pepper were around. Maybe you could do some retail therapy, so you could forget everything for a while. Now that you no longer could get stupid drunk.   
When you entered the room Nat, Wanda and Sam stopped talking. It was obvious that they had been talking about you, and it hurt. What were they saying behind your back? Where they saying what you thought about yourself? That you were a freak? A monster? A Science experiment.  
“Hey, guys!” you greet them trying to stay positive. They greeted you but did not seem that happy to see you.  
“What are you up to?” you ask. Wanda and Sam look away, but Nat looks at you and smiles.   
“Just talking,” she answers easy. You nod.   
“You were talking about me,” you say and by the look on your face you see that it is true.  
“What where you saying?” you ask trying to keep your feelings in check.   
“Y/N, please don’t,” Wanda begs you. Sam is looking away, looking guilty. You felt like you have been hit by a train.

 

Steve walks into the elevator with Bucky. Their mission went a lot faster than they had expected. Bucky looks at Steve and must have noted his big smile.  
“Are you going to have a Doctor Who marathon tonight again with Y/N?” Bucky wonders and Steve’s smiles grow even bigger.   
“If she wants,” he answers.  
“When are you going to take her out on a real date?” Bucky wonders and Steve shrugs his shoulders.  
“You should do it soon,” Bucky says giving Steve a small push. “You don’t want her to think that you have lost your interest in her.”  
“She knows I am giving her space to deal with everything,” he answers and pulls a hand through his hair.  
“Are you sure?” Bucky sighs. “Did you talk to her?”  
“No, I did not talk to her, but of course, she knows,” he says starting to get a bit irritating. Y/N knew, didn’t she? He slept in her bed when he was home. He knew that she had felt how his body reacted to being close to her. She must know that she had his heart. That she was the one.  
“I am not so sure of that,” Bucky gave Steve a push again. The elevator door dings and they walk out. “Talk to her.” Just when Bucky said that they heard Y/N obviously unhappy voice.   
“Where you talking about how I am a freak,” Y/N yells out. Then there is a paused. “No, wait I am a monster. A monster constructed by Hydra with one purpose to kill.”   
“Y/N, you were experimented on without your consent. You are not a freak or a monster!” Sam almost screams.   
“My mother is a monster,” Y/N voice is a bit shaky.  
“You are not your mother,” Sam’s voice is strong.   
“If you really think that then why do you treat me like this?” Y/N sob out. Steve’s heart is breaking. What had happened. He hurries on his steps. Almost there.  
“Like what?” Wanda asks with a shaky voice.   
They sprint to the source of voices and stop in the doorway. The scene in front of Steve makes his heart ache. Tears are running down Y/N’s face as well as Wanda’s. Steve starts to go into the room and take you into his arms, but Bucky stops him with his arm. He shakes his head at him and Steve stand back. Sam’s eyes flick to Steve and Bucky in the doorway and he also gives a small shake of his head. Both his friends wanted him to stay out of this, but it was breaking his heart. What had happened?

 

You felt everything hit you. Your friends were talking behind your back. They were keeping secrets. Where they afraid of you?  
“Where you talking about how I am a freak,” you yell out, then paused. “No, wait I am a monster. A monster constructed by Hydra with one purpose to kill.”   
“Y/N, you were experimented on without your consent. You are not a freak or a monster!” Sam almost screams at you. He is looking you right in your eyes, but it was too late.  
“My mother is a monster,” your voice is almost cracking, but you stand your ground.   
“You are not your mother,” Sam’s voice is strong. He is staring you down. You swallow.   
“If you really think that then why do you treat me like this?” You sob out. Your heart is breaking. Where you really a part of the team anymore?   
“Like what?” Wanda asks looking unsure. Did they really not see it? You nod at her and she knows that you are giving her the access to your brain. You can see on her face that she sees everything. Wanda flints, whimpers and tears split out from her eyes. Sam puts a hand on her arm. He looks at you to explain.  
“Like I am made of glass. Like I am going to break. You are all walking around like you are scared of you,” You whisper with tears running down your cheek.   
“You got to be kidding me,” Nat snaps at you. She is looking at you and she is pissed.   
“We are not afraid of you.” Sam states crossing his arms. Wanda nods.   
“Then what is going on?” You wonder and look around at your friends. Wanda looks down on the floor.  
“You have been through a lot of things over the last couple of weeks. Found out a lot about your life.” Sam tries to explain.   
“So what, you are waiting for me to freak out and kill everyone?” You almost shout out. You are trying to understand what is happening.  
“Y/N, stop this,” Nat says, standing and start going to you.  
“No, look at me, I am a monster!” You yell out. You raise your hands and a flame flickers in your hand before you extinguish it directly.   
“Y/N, if you are a monster, what does that make me?” Steve steps in front of you. Where had he come from? Bucky is standing behind him. They should be away on a mission. They were back? You see Tony and Bruce walking into the room as well.   
“What do you mean Steve? You are Captain America, a hero,” you spit out. You take a couple of breaths, trying to calm down. “Not like me.”  
“I let them do this to me,” Steve said making a gesture to his body. “I am a science experiment. And I signed up for it. I knew what I was doing.”  
“Yes, but for good reasons, Steve,” you defend him, not really knowing you did so. You cross your arms. “You wanted to fight in the war and save people.”   
“There were other ways I could have done that, without letting them do this to me.” Steve states looking over at Bucky, who nods at him.  
“We need you, Steve. Everyone does. You saved the world. You are a hero, not a monster.” You continue defending him. Tony looks at Bruce and smirks.  
“Y/N, you are not a monster or a freak,” Steve raises his voice. “Look at Bucky, is he a monster?”  
“No, he was a prisoner of war, made to do horrible things that he would never have done without Hydra.” You say matter of fact. Bucky’s face is getting red.  
“What makes you any different?” Bucky wonders at this. He clears his throat. “You did not ask for this. All of this was done to you before you were born when you were helpless. And then when you were a child, by the person that should always take care of you.” You look at him, and then you look at Steve. Your eyes search out Nat, Wanda, Sam, Tony and Bruce. Everyone is looking at you with hope in their eyes.   
“Uh..” is all you can get out. You look down at your feet.   
“You are not a monster, doll,” Bucky says and the rest of them agree. You look around the room at your friends.  
“Then why aren’t I allowed to go on missions any longer?” you ask and everyone looks over at Steve. The man is standing completely still like he is frozen.  
“Steve?” you look at him. “Why?” Steve still hasn’t said a word, he looks over to Tony who shakes his head.   
“You think I am dangerous, don’t you?” you whisper out trying to keep from collapsing on the floor. “You are scared I will kill people instead of saving them.” Nat and Wanda are sending death stares at Steve and everyone else is looking at him angrily. You really did not need this. You turn away from Steve and starts walking away. Maybe it was a good idea to leave the Avengers and join the X-men. Charles and Logan would always welcome you back to them.   
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m in love with you!” Steve screamed out. You and turned around to him. “Everything I do. Every time I fuck up. Is because I love you and don’t know what I should do. I never felt like this before.”  
“You can’t be serious” you whispered and neither of you notice that the team leaves the room, even Tony. Bucky and Bruce had helped getting him out of the room. Sam had pointed at the cameras so Tony knew they could watch without being in the room.  
“What did you think these last weeks have been about?” Steve looked pointed at you.  
“I thought you wanted me back as a friend,” you admit with a whisper. He loved you?   
“I am head over heels, madly in love with you,” Steve took a step against you. “I know I messed this up. I should have just asked you out on a date or actually talked and danced with you at the party.” You look at him not knowing what you should do. Part of you wanted to run into his arms and kiss him. The other part wanted to kick his ass for the shit he had pulled.   
“You never tried to reschedule our date after we found my mother at the Hydra base. I took that as a sign you did saw things that made you stop wanting me” You admit, he was standing so close to you could feel the heat from his body and his breath on your face.  
“I will never ever stop wanting you,” Steve says putting his hands on your hips. “I just wanted to give you time.”  
“I don’t want time,” You say and look up in his eyes.   
“How can you love someone like me?” You ask making a gesture to yourself.  
“Easily.” Steve smiles. “Y/N, I have seen you at your best, but I have also seen you at your worst. And there is nothing that you can say or do that will make me stop loving you. You are the one for me. I promise you.“ In Steve’s eyes, you see everything that you ever wanted to see. The love and lust. The want.  
“I love you, even when you are an idiot like now. What do you want?” Steve asks, smiling knowingly at you. You wrap your arms around his neck.  
“I want you,” You smile up at him. His breath is on your lips and then he kisses you. A kiss that makes your toes curl and every doubt you ever had about his feelings disappear. All the love is in the kiss.   
“I love you, Y/N,” Steve says as he breaks away to breathe. You smile at this.  
“I love you too, Steve,” You say and kiss him again.   
“Finally,” you hear Tony say over the speakers. Steve and you break apart.   
“Shall we go somewhere we can be alone?” Steve asks you and you nod. He takes your hand and you quickly make your way to Steve’s room.   
When you close the door behind you Steve takes you into his arms and kisses you. Your legs start to turn mushy. Steve takes a step back and looks at you with a loving gaze.  
“I promise you that I will do my utmost to never fuck this up again,” Steve promise and you nod.  
“I love you,” You smile at him.   
“You know, I don’t think I will ever get tired at hearing you say that,” Steve says and he kisses you again. You feel happy and safe for the first time in months. And you knew that with Steve at your side you would get through whatever came your way.


	12. Epilogue

You stood alone in the room. You had sent Wanda, Nat and Pepper out a little while ago to get some alone time. Some time to breath and let yourself relax. The butterflies in your stomach were flying around and had brought on a kind of queasiness. You walked over to the whole body mirror and tried to breathe. The reflection that stared back at you with big eyes did not really look like you. Not the usual you at least. There you stood in a wedding dress. It was beautiful. You looked fantastic and a bit pale. How had you gotten here? You asked yourself. A little over a year ago you had been crying yourself to sleep because of Steve Rogers and now you were marrying him. It was still hard to understand sometimes that Steve loved you, for who you were. He wanted to spend his life with you. You lifted your hand and looked at your rose gold engagement ring with the diamonds sparkling in the light. It brought you back to the day he had asked you to marry him.

_Steve had whisked you away on a date. You had been a couple for 6 months and he had always made time for dates and time together, even if it was just a simple movie night in one of your rooms. He had helped you patch everything up with your father and you all had dinners together when you could. Your father loved Steve and was pleased with your choice in a boyfriend._  
Today Nat, Pepper and Wanda had made an extra fuss about your date and helped you find a gorgeous red dress. You felt like a queen waiting on your king when they were done. There was a knock on your door and outside was Steve. He held a bouquet of blood-red roses and you saw his eyes widen.  
“Wow,” was all he could say. You laugh and took in the look of him. He was dressed in a dark blue suit that sat like a second skin and he was so handsome. You wanted to pinch yourself in the arm. How could this man be yours?  
“You look breath-taking,” Steve said and handed you the roses. You smiled and lifted them up to your face. Your face was starting to heat up.  
“We should go,” Steve said and fiddled with his cuffs.  
“Are we in a rush?” you asked.  
“No, but if we don’t leave now I will forget about the date and take you to bed,” Steve said looked down in the floor.  
“That works for me,” you answered, but he shook his head and took your hand and pulled you out in the hallway.  
“Not for me,” Steve muttered. “Later.” His eyes twinkled with something you could not place.  
Outside a limousine was waiting for you and inside it was your favourite chocolate and champagne.  
“You spoil me,” you breathed out after your first bite of chocolate. Steve smiles at you and caressed your arm.  
“You deserve it,” he smiled and you leaned over and kissed him. He pulls you into his arms and you open your mouth for him. Letting him in. You start hissing your skirt of the dress up to sit in his lap when the limo stops. Steve and you draw back looking at each other. He clears his throat and you smile at him. His eyes are so blue and you can see the lust and love in them.  
“We are here,” He says and opens the door. He goes out and he hands you his hand to help you out. When you stand up and see the place you are at you let out a gasp. It was fairy lights everywhere and a path. Steve linked his arms with you and you started walking down the path. After a bend, you came upon a table by a lake. It was roses on the table, champagne in a bucket by the table and fairy lights and candles everywhere.  
“Oh, Steve,” you said and looked up at him. He smiled at you and gave you a wink. You walked over to the table and he pulled out a chair for you. You sat down and music started playing in a low volume. It was perfect. Steve opened the bottle of champagne and poured you a glass and then one for him. There were advantages of not being able to get drunk any more. You could have a lot of champagne without getting tipsy.   
“Steve, this is amazing,” you said and looked around.  
“You are amazing,” Steve said and reached over the table to take your hand.  
Bucky walked over to the table and your stomach dropped. He must be here for a mission, you thought and started to rise up, but Steve sacked his hand.  
Bucky placed food in front of you.  
“Bon appetite,” he said and left. You were speechless.  
“I thought…” you started.  
“I know what you thought,” Steve said and smiled. You looked down on your plate and it was the Italian food you had eaten on your first date with Steve.  
“Wow,” you said and Steve laugh. You ate and talked with ease as you always did when you were together. You were happy and you could not see how it could be any better. You look at Steve and smile at him.  
“I love you,” You said and his smile got even brighter if that was possible. “I am so happy.” Steve stood up and walked over to you and pulled you up. You walked down to the nearer to the water and you saw there was a heart made of red rose petals. Steve walked into the heart and turned to you. He smiled and went down on one knee and pulled out a box from his pocket. You felt your heart leap in your chest. He opened the box.  
“Y/N, I love you with all my heart. You are my soul-mate, my best friend and the one I want to spend the rest of my life with. You make me a better man. I am so happy with you and I don’t want to spend a day without you. Would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?” Steve asked. You stood there with tears running down your face. You dropped to your knees and kissed him. A kiss with lots of heat and love. Steve pushed you back slowly and carefully.  
“Is that a yes?” he asked looking kind of lost.  
“YES!” you squealed. Steve took your hand and put the ring on your finger. 

You smiled as you thought back on the day. It had been perfect and you had a lot of pictures from the day. The team had helped Steve plan he ting and Pepper had insisted on Steve having someone hidden with a camera to take photos of it all.  
Now 6 months later you were marrying the love of our life. Steve ha wanted to get married the next day, but you had insisted on getting some time to plan it all. You did not want a big wedding, never had, but you wanted a perfect day. Steve wanted to give you whatever you wanted. Bucky had said that if you had wanted to get married on the moon, Steve would have made sure you got it. You had laughed at the notion.  
Steve had shown you love. True love. The kind of love that made your knees week and love that made you stronger. You were a team. Always had each other’s back and always. You never needed to think about if he was happy with you. He showed you every day and he made you happy. Happier than you ever been. But still, you were a bit nervous, what if he changed his mind. There was a knock on the door.  
“Come in” you called out. Bucky walks in and stops.  
“Wow,” Bucky says. “Steve will faint when he sees you.” You smile at him and Wanda, Nat and Pepper walk in behind him.  
“What are you doing here?” Nat demands to know.  
“Steve is nervous and wanted to make sure you had not changed your mind,” Bucky smiles and your heart beats a bit faster. Steve thought you might change your mind.  
“Never,” you smile and Bucky looks happy at the answer.  
“See you up at the altar,” Bucky says and leaves the room.  
“How are you doing, Y/N?” Pepper asks and walks over to you. You smile at her and feel tears pooling in your eyes.  
“Hey, what is wrong?” Pepper asks and pulls you into a hug.  
“Do you want to leave?” Nat wonders and looks around as to find an escape route.  
You shake your hand and look at Wanda.  
“She is happy,” Wanda smiles and gets tears in her eyes. “Over the moon happy.”  
They laugh and smiles at her.  
“Thank you for being the best friends a girl can have,” you say and then the door opens and your father and Wyatt walks in. They both stops and stares.  
“You look amazing,” Wyatt says after a while.  
“Honey, you look beautiful,” Your father says and gets tears in his eyes.  
“Are we going to stand in here all day or am I going to get married?” you sass and everyone laughs.

 

Steve is standing by the alter feeling nervous. Bruce gives him a small, and Steve smiled at the fact that he knew that Bruce was nervous, as well, about being their wedding officiant. Steve looks over at Bucky who just gives him a resourcing smile. Then he looks at Sam who gives him thumbs up. Where was she? The music starts playing and the door opens. Wanda walks in with a beautiful dark red dress and flowers in her hands. She has a big smile on her lips and walks to stand by the alter. Then comes Nat also with a dark red dress and flowers in her hands. Steve would swear he sees tears in her eyes. When Nat has joined them at the alter Pepper and Wyatt walks in together. Pepper in a dark red dress, flowers in her hands and Wyatt with a black suit and a dark red tie. Steve takes a deep breath getting ready to see Y/N walk into the doorway. It feels like time is going so slow and then he sees her. The breath is knocked from his lungs and his heart is beating so fast. She was beautiful, now that was a too mundane word for it. She was spectacular. She walks down the aisle with her father Frank and the smile on her face matched Steve’s. Bucky had been right when he had said a half an hour ago that he would not know what hit him. Steve wants to run down the aisle to get to her, but he forces himself to stay where he is and wait for her. His eyes locks with her and he could feel the love in her eyes. He still could not believe how he got a woman like her to love him. Or the fact that she wanted to spend her life with him.  
Frank and Y/N stop and Fran turn to Y/N. He kisses her.  
“I am so proud of you,” Frank says and Y/N smiles at him before she walks over and stands with next to Steve.  
“Hey,” she mumbles to him. Steve winks at her.  
“You are gorgeous,” he mumbles back. Y/N hands her flowers to Nat and takes Steves hands in hers.  
Bruce starts the ceremony and after a time it’s time for the vows. Steve had been really nervous about this part. It had been his idea that they would write their own vows, but what if Y/N did not like them? Steve starts.  
“Y/N, I have seen you at your worst and I still think you are the absolute best. You are my best friend, soulmate and love of my life. You make me happier then I have ever been in my entire life. You are the light in my life, the fire in my life. You make me a better man.  
I promise to always kiss you good morning and goodnight when we are together.  
I promise you will get the best of me. To make sure we always have chocolate in our home.”  
That earns a few laughs in the crowd and Y/N’s eyes are glittering with tears. “To face all that will come in our life, happiness and sadness. Together. I promise to always be by your side and listen to you. I promise you to love you until my last breath and if I can, longer,” Steve wows and now tears running down Y/N’s face. She stands on her toes and presses a sweet kiss to his mouth. Steve could hear a few oohs.   
“Steve, you are the best man I have ever met. Your compassion and strength are like no other. I don’t know what I would do without you in my life. You are my strength and the only one for me. You are the reason I smile more, laugh more and dream more. You are the person that fits perfectly to me. With you, I feel safe and loved. You are my Everything. I promise that I will be your partner in all of life’s turns. I promise to give you all of me and that I will love all of you. I can promise you that all our days together won’t be easy, but together we can get through anything. I love you for eternity,” Y/N wowed. Steve could feel the tears in his eye. Y/N’s face was radiant with love and happiness. He could only hope he looked as happy as he felt and she looked.

You stood there looking up at Steve and the big smile on his face. Soon your husband.  
“Who has the rings?” Bruce asked and Wyatt and Bucky stepped forward. Wyatt handed you Steve’s ring and Bucky handed Steve your ring.   
“Steve, will you begin,” Bruce says and Steve fiddles with your ring before he starts.  
“With this ring, I give you my heart form this moment and until eternity. You will never walk alone again and let my arms be your home,” Steve says and puts the ring on your finger. You take a deep breath and say the same back to him before you put his ring on his finger.  
“I now pronounce you man and wife. You can now kiss.” Bruce says and the cheer in the room is so loud. Steve sweeps you up in his arms and kisses you with such passion. He pumps his left arm up in the air as a kind of victory gesture. You break apart and with claps hands start walking down the aisle. A laugh is bubbling in your chest. You had never been this happy as you were with Steve, your husband. Steve stops and pulls you to him. You look up at him shocked and then he leans forward and whispers in your ear:  
“You have just made me the happiest man alive, Mrs Rogers. I love you.” He pulls back a bit and you pull him closer again and kiss him until Bucky clears his throat.  
“Time to party, Mr and Mrs Rogers!” Tony almost screams and you start laughing. All of the Avengers were around you including your father and Wyatt and his family. You were happy. Your family might not be the most traditional, but it was perfect. Family was not always blood, but the people you choose and that loved you as you are. You wondered you’re your family would say when you told them that in about 7 months they were getting a new family member, but first, you needed to tell your husband that he would become a father.

The End


End file.
